The Best Generation
by Tsuki Gret
Summary: Hachiko hates her name. Who wants to be named after a dead dog? While said dog was heroic, she was neither a dog or dead. Even if some divine power gave her another shot at life. Who cares if Oda focused the story on a teen pirate! Becoming a marine is also fun, adventurous and there's free food! She'll be the eccentric workaholic and annoy the fuck out of Smoker while she's at it!
1. To New Beginnings

**I do not own One Piece**

**Warning: Mentions of suicide, drug use, slavery**

**Please enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1: To New Beginnings**

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"Hey Chiko-chan, smile!" She blinked and looked back, putting on a huge grin.

In the middle of the summer, on the longest day of the year, a little girl was born. The island was rushing with its everyday routines: vendors were screaming prices of their wares and couples walked through the busy streets, hand in hand.

The sun was shining with all it's might, but thanks to the few clouds littering the sky, the day was that much less hotter, which was deemed as perfect temperature for everyone to be seen outside. After all, the afternoon rays of sun were 'deadly', as all the mothers would say to their children and their lover.

Smiles and cheerful chatter could be heard. Ice cream melted down children's hands. The waves by the shore were occupied by families and citizens, all wanting to cool down a bit from the blazing sun.

And on that day, a little girl came to the world screaming. Her screams were piercing, to which the parents smiled tiredly at their new little ray of sunshine. Not even this warm day could compare to the warmth that filled their hearts the moment they set eyes on the screaming, pink, wrinkly human that laid in the nurse's arms. The nurse cheerfully noted that the little girl would be quite the chatterbox growing up.

XXX

Seconds phased into minutes phased into hours phased into days phased into weeks phased into months until her eyes flashed with recognition. The two months and one week old infant woke up in the middle of the night, the urge to start screaming was very tempting because of something gross that stuck to her lower parts. It was extremely uncomfortable and it even started to actually hurt.

But what was more interesting was the thing above her. The hanging toys. It slowly turned and moved above her, stopping the baby from screaming and yelling on the top of her lungs. Instead, there was confusion.

What is that?

But now her lower parts felt even more uncomfortable, so she let go of the resistance of the urge to scream. She could faintly hear the groans from the other room.

XXX

Ah. So this is a thing.

She blinked as her 'okaa-san' cooed at her, despite her not being able to see all that well. Things were still ever so slightly blurry to her, but she could recognize the person trying to play with her. Dark brown hair, that was the easier feature to see. It looked long. And nice to the touch. So, filled with determination of a new mission, the baby reached her hands out to the person in front of her. Percingly, the person let out an inhuman squeal, which made the baby flinch, but still reach out. So the person in front of the baby brought their face closer, which shocked the baby if anything.

Bright green eyes.

Pretty…

Oh well. The good looking hair was within grabbing distance. So with one reach and a tug that would make even renown marines flinch, the women let out a painful yelp.

XXX

She decided that she liked her new set of parents. They were cheerful and made their small house be filled with warmth and love. Something that she found that she lacked quite a bit in her past life. These parents would take her out in the town, would show her the beach and would do picnics under large trees. They would blow raspberries to her cheeks and stomach, making her squirm and let out gurgled laughter.

It was warm, and despite how much it stung to leave her beloved people from a lifetime ago, she couldn't help but start loving this new life. She didn't mind letting go of her past people, because she had lived a full life, one with love and happiness. And she died just like how she wanted: in her sleep. A shorter life than most, but diseases attack more unexpectedly sometimes. Some nights, her mind would wander to her previous family, wondering how they felt with her passing. Hopefully they did not react too badly.

She had hoped to see her already passed husband and best friend again though. There were so many religions going around about the afterlife, so it was fun to think about what would happen after death. But she was an atheist at heart, so she did not linger on the thought too much. Nonetheless, it was a shock to return to a world, with a fresh new start in a fresh new squishy body.

"Oh shit- it's starting to rain! We need to go home!" The one that loved calling himself her father swore and stood up from where they were all sitting under a large tree. She felt herself being picked up by her mother. "Argh! Can't a woman take a nap?!"

Another gurgled laugh was let out when she was placed in her safe, waterproof stroller and tied up, while her parents screamed as they ran to our house. A fresh life full of opportunities opened up to this reborn child, and she was not going to waste it and stop having fun for a second.

XXX

"Ok, remember Chiko-chan, smile! Alright, go on ahead, take the picture!"

Her mother stood by the child's left while the father grinned by her right. Chiko grinned, her heart swelling with love.

She was so incredibly lucky. But she couldn't help but feel some sort of doubt sometimes fill her, as if there was some sort of bad omen on her.

Why?

Because her new parents named her Hachiko. Just like that japanese dog that waited for over a decade for his dead owner by a train station, only to eventually die.

She hoped it was only speculation.

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**Hello! Back at you with another story! **

**So I've completely lacked the motivation for the war era Naruto fanfic, but I've written A LOT for this fanfiction, so I'm sure I'll be able to finish it xxx**

**What to say about this fanfiction...well, firstly this chapter is very short. No worries, it'll get much longer for literally every other chapter. What's more is that, well you may have noticed that this is a reincarnation si-oc fanfic! I'm making sure that she doesn't become Mary Sue and that there won't be many other OCs, besides her of course. **

**Also, if you're interested in becoming a beta for this story, please PM me 3 or if you see any errors somewhere, please contact me via reviews or PMing me. It would be much appreciated! I'm planning on uploading three chapters at once so that you all have a big preview about what's to come. Also cause the backstory is these three first chapters. The first canon character, who I very much love, appears at the end of chapter three. So stay tuned!**


	2. The End of her Childhood

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2: The End of her Childhood**

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"A-ah! Chiko-chan, be careful!"

After a year of learning how to walk and run in her new body, it felt nice to do it freely outside. It was the middle of winter and yet it was still warm enough for people to be seen wearing t-shirts and shorts. The mother had been chatting with a friend on a picnic cover, by a tree, and Chiko deemed that as quite boring and ran across the field of grass. She giggled delightfully, despite her short wonky legs.

The last months of her past life had been dull and uneventful. Being bedridden in a hospital bed would do that to people. A dull end for a 32 year old woman, but she still loved her previous life and accepted it wholeheartedly. But that did not mean she wouldn't do things differently this time around. No. She smiled. She was going to be doing things much differently this time around.

XXX

In her past life, she was scared to be out there. To show her personality to others, in fear to scare them off. But this time around, she knew that her personality is what would attract others to her. And if no one liked that, then she didn't care because then people didn't deserve to be near her.

So soon, the 'little Chiko' had a... nice description on her. 'Eccentric'. At three years old, she could already talk perfectly well with clear understanding. And ever so slightly, she would say things that were… off.

"Otou-san!" she screamed, running towards her father that stood by the port. Her father was a fisherman, helping sell fish to their small town. Little Chiko quickly learnt that his name was Tohao. She noted that he was wearing a long sleeved shirt and thought that would be a hassle for a fisherman like him. She dismissed it at him being quirky, like her mother.

The man laughed and grabbed her underneath her arm pits and pulled her up. The small girl squealed and giggled at the rush, before cuddling with the man that resembled her. "Hello Chiko-chan! Ran away from your mother again?" he teased, making her giggle and nod. He poked her nose, "Now, that's no good!" Tohao had blond hair, but it was impressively curly and also extremely messy. His wife had given up on his hair a long time ago.

"You- stop running away from me, you little monster!" Chiko smiled innocently at her mother, who just arrived from running behind her daughter. Both daughter and father stared at the mother, something akin to amusement and love flashing in their eyes. "Did you seriously lose Chiko-chan in the crowd, Siki?" Tohao asked, making Chiko's mother, Siki, pout and look at their daughter. "Well, if someone hadn't broken the melon stall, then I wouldn't have!"

At that, Chiko stopped looking at her mother and stuffed her face in her father's chest, as if that would hide her. Both parents looked at their daughter in amusement. "I don't like melon man!" The girl whined. The father raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah? Why?"

"He had a weird face and said that one day I'll grow two melons!" Chiko pouted and looked at her father, "I don't want to be a melon grower!"

Both parents blinked at what Chiko said and immediately understood what really happened. That night, a certain melon vendor was being shouted at while a little girl giggled, eating a fresh melon her parents got for free.

XXX

"Otou-san, I'm going to the library!"

"Yeah- sure- I, wait, what?!"

Ever since Hachiko realized her town had a local library, she could be found there every day. Most found it cute, and the word 'bright' was added to her description. She thought that getting educated early on would be wise. Since the language was not the same as her last, she needed some catching up to do. So days on end would be spent on the cool ground of the main library hall while books piled up and towered over her.

After that, it hadn't taken a long time to figure out where she really was.

She carried a book back home, the book titled 'North Blue Tales', written in large lettering on the cover.

Her parents were cooking in the kitchen when she arrived and she set the book on the table, then went standing on a chair.

"Oka-san, Otou-san," she announced, not blinking. The two turned around, a bit confused by her tone. "Yes sweetheart?"

"Am I seriously in a shonen anime?"

XXX

It took time to get her head around the fact that she got reincarnated in One Piece. The anime she watched for far too long. In fact, it took so long that she didn't even manage to finish the damn thing. She blinked and scratched her cheek, walking towards the library once again.

It was the morning after her question, which of course her parents didn't understand but she didn't want them to understand anyways. The two parents filed her question in 'obscure knowledge and words she got from the library' and then asked joyfully about her day.

Interesting as that revelation was, it was also extremely worrying. Soon after she learnt that she lived in a small village in a somewhat big island, in the Grand Line. Yep, the Grand Line. Terrifying... but a paradise to New World standards.

Terrifying nonetheless.

The only dangerous thing that happened here was the above average temperature they would get in random intervals if the year. People would legit die if they were out for too long on certain days. Chiko had just thought they were bedridden for days but no, they actually died.

Interesting.

No wonder Grandpa Hokis never came back from his trip.

Also, the storms they would sometimes have. It would sometimes storm extremely hard and Chiko had just assumed that the times they went underground was just a neat way to meet other people. Now it made sense why her father would always play the guitar when the town would be on lockdown, under the earth. To mask the storm sounds.

Huh.

Worrying.

And she guessed that the abnormally big birds weren't that common everywhere else in the world either. She snorted when a horse sized bird landed next to a kid and ate his hot dog whole… as well as his hands… oh shit he was being carried away now-

"AH! CHIKO-CHAN, HELP!"

She caught his ankle last second and yanked him down, making the bird squawk and fly off while the child was slammed onto the ground. His face planted on the ground when his older sister came rushing to him from a stall and started scolding him. Chiko blinked when the boy stood up, a neighborhood kid that Chiko couldn't remember the name of, and gave a thumbs up at Chiko. "Thanks!" He was missing a tooth and his cheek was bleeding. Tough kid.

Ah nevermind, he just touched his face, saw the blood and now he's crying.

Chiko gave a thumbs up back, "No problem," and continued her walk to the library.

She should be more attentive. Of course warmth that kills in ten minutes, storms that settle in five minutes and huge birds that kidnap people aren't normal. She nodded, she swore to pay more attention from now on. She thought she'd have it easy to laze around and not listen in the second life, but now that she knew she was in One Piece, many things were not just fine.

Pirates.

Marines.

The government.

The revolutionaries.

Yep, things were not fine. She'll keep an ear out.

XXX

Since that day, she realized things weren't as good as she thought it was. Her parents, while always smiling, laughing and being happy around her, were not that when she was not around. They spoke in whispers when she wasn't paying attention and Chiko saw how they ate a portion of what she ate.

She also noticed how their house was small and brittle compared to others in the town. When she walked with her parents outside, she noticed the looks they sent to her parents. Pity and scorn. Why? Are there rumors about her family? She concluded that they were poor, but being treated badly because of it didn't seem fair. Or reasonable. But most importantly, it didn't seem correct.

She knew what was truly going on, five days after her fifth birthday.

Harsh banging erupted from the front, fragile door of the living room. She was already put to bed but she was blessed (or cursed?) with light slumber and she instantly woke up from the racket. Pulling the thin cover over herself, she made no sound, sat up and huddled in the corner.

She heard foreign voices. They were shouting. And they demanded-

"-debt! C'mon Kataimo, you need to pay up the sum! If you don't pay soon, boss ain't gonna be happy, you know this!"

It always came down to money.

Debts.

"We'll give you another year. If you don't have the money by then, well, you already know."

The door slammed shut. Chiko quickly climbed back on her bed, properly, and put the covers on her. Despite the warmth, she was shivering. Cold. She didn't like that foreshadowing. How much were her parents in debt? Too much?

Too many questions. She hugged herself while she heard her parents weeping.

The walls were too thin.

XXX

A week later, she figured that she was the cause of their crippling debt. It made sense, the collector came a week or so after her birthday. She had looked around her parents room and saw that there were papers, many official looking ones, that sported the same year that she was born in. Did having a kid cost so much that they'd be in debt?

She closed the book.

She couldn't focus on reading anymore.

She needed to ask questions.

So she walked slowly back to her house from where she was previously reading in the library. She didn't know the schedule of her parents all that well, since she was always in the library or walking around the place, occasionally getting lost. She figured at least one of them would be home. And if not, she could wait.

She opened the door of her house.

"I'm home-"

Her parents snapped their heads towards her.

A syringe in both of theirs hands.

Empty.

Patches on their arms.

Ah, so that's why they wore long sleeves.

She should have known that wearing long sleeves would be weird in a hot, humid island like theirs.

Her parents are drug addicts. Their debt climbed as they couldn't pay for the drugs.

When her mother got pregnant, they moved to this small town to clear the addiction. Chiko had seen they moved from the city to here by the papers in their bedroom. She had assumed it was because of the lower paying rent. No, it was to stay away from the city to clear the addiction.

But then Chiko was born and it cost more than they expected.

The number 10 came up aften in the papers, circled in red sometimes.

10 years. If they didn't pay their debt in 10 years, then the debt collectors would come for them.

10 years would come next year.

They've had nine years of warning about their debt for their drug usage. And now they were doing it. In the living room. While she was in the library.

Or was supposed to be in the library.

They've been injecting themselves while she was at the library or not at home. Her independence gave them time to relieve themselves through the abuse of drugs. To pull them even further into the hole of debts.

It made sense. The pitying looks from the townsfolk, and how the adults looked at her with worry. She had always assumed it was because of her 'eccentricities', but she never thought about what people thought how she got them. They think she's eccentric because of her parents. Her lovely, drug addicted parents.

It made sense.

What sort of parents lets their three year old roam the village all alone? Who trusts their three year old to go to the library? Who lets their three year old alone all day long? She had always assumed the nice librarian was a friend of her parents and had given her the sandwiches cause her parents asked the librarian to do so. But no, it's cause the librarian pitied her.

Was that why kids never wanted to play with her? She couldn't pinpoint if that was more her personality or their parents not wanting to be influenced by her, so she let that one go.

She didn't care about sugar coating.

"So you two are drug addicts when I'm not looking."

Not a typical thing to say as a 5 year old. But then again, she always said 'obscure' things. This would have been one of them, if it didn't hit the nail right on.

Her parents flinched and paled. "Chi-Chiko-chan! We-uh, we-"

She let them blab, hide their syringe and everything while they tried to explain themselves to their 5 years old daughter. Through their worry, they started to cry. The door was still open behind Chiko as her parents crouched in front of her, drug in their veins, crying their hearts out.

She couldn't help but still love her parents.

XXX

It was a spiral, she soon figured.

The debt was depressing, so they wanted to forget through drugs.

To get the drugs, they had to buy it with money.

More money was lost, making them more depressed.

And it goes round and round and round.

It was weird remembering her parents as happy go lucky people. Always smiling and being cheesy. She supposes she just remembered the things she wanted to remember. Because thinking back about it, they were always doing things when she wasn't looking.

Perhaps it was even weirder to realize for the second time that parents are humans and deeply flawed. There were no exceptions to that rule, not even her beloved second pair of parents.

Chiko didn't know how to help.

Drugs are not something you take away and say, 'no, you can't have'. The person may die by having the drug stopped suddenly. And Chiko knew her parents were at risk of that, since they have been probably drugging themselves for a bit less than a decade.

Well, ever since Chiko found them, they've been doing it less.

The shame in them was filled to the brim at that point.

They had looked at her in fear when she opened the door.

Her eyes were set on them, as they just finished injecting the liquid.

They saw her slowly realize what they were doing. Realization. Realization that her parents aren't what she thought they were.

She stayed like that, unblinking. Tears had gathered to her eyes and dripped down her face. Her parents felt shame and disgust twirl inside them. But, it was such a good relief and… they couldn't stop. It was a lifeline. It was like taking a breath of air after staying far too long in water.

So they stopped for a while. For as long as they could. Only when dark thoughts emerged and tempted them too much, did they take it. But only then.

And they hoped it would be enough to make their little girl happy.

They only had one year to fix everything. One year was time. And time is all they had. So they could do it.

XXX

Chiko's tears fell to the ground as she pulled her father's and mother's long sleeved shirts. Her sixth birthday was two days ago, but they wouldn't stand up.

"Oka-san! Otou-san! What are you doing?!"

She thought they were done! They had been doing so well this year! Oka-san worked so hard, travelling back and forth to the city to get money, and Otou-san also worked very hard as a fisherman! They even had villagers help them pitch in money after they've come clean with their small town.

So what were they doing on the couch, dazed, with used syringes in their hands?

They have just a few days until the debt collectors would come!

"Ah… Chiko-chan..." her father drawled out. "Shh… it'll be fine..."

Tears continued flowing. No it wouldn't! How much did they spend on this?! She made sure to keep an eye on them, so that this wouldn't happen! She felt her mother's hand on her head and she looked at her mother.

"...you're too loud Chiko, quiet now..."

She fell to her knees, sobbing.

"...why? I, I thought-"

"Shut it Chiko-chan."

She hiccuped and looked at her father. Or tried. She could barely see with all her tears swelling up in her eyes. Why would they do this? They had been doing so well! Why, why would they do this?

Chiko's eyes widened.

No... they… they didn't use all of the money, right?

She yanked her mother's hand off her head and ran to her parents' room. Slamming the door open, she fell to her knees and winced when she fell too harshly. Not minding it, she reached under their bed and removed a loose piece of wood off and-

Her eyes widened.

The stacks of money.

Gone.

Just two bills left.

She reached her hand down. Hopefully she was just hallucinating, just dreaming.

But no. She felt nothing but air. And then the cool touch of the wood, except for the two bills. Pulling the bills up, she went to sit back up properly by her parents bed. Two bills left.

And they had a few days left until they came.

Her hands trembled.

They still had a few days, they could still do this.

It's still time. They have time.

Tears fell on the bills.

They still have time-

Banging. On the door.

She snapped up and looked behind her. No, they were early. Cold. She felt cold. An unsettling cold. No.

They still had time, please.

Please.

She stood up, wincing at her bleeding knees and walked to the living room. Her parents were still on the couch, in a daze.

They don't have time.

All used up.

The banging came back, making her jump. Her hands trembled, the two bills in her hand. They had money. Where did it all go? Maybe they hid it somewhere else?

"Kitaimo! Open up! Or I'll break it open!"

Her legs trembled as she walked to the door. She could see it move from how hard the debt collector banged onto the door. Her hands trembled towards the handle… and opened the door. She looked up and held the two bills by her chest. A big man. Wide. Butt chin. A grin. Bald. Thick black moustache.

"Hah? They have a kid, hah!" He started laughing, making Chiko wince and take a few steps back. He looked down at her and had a look that frightened Chiko to the core. "That's real unlucky of you, lil missy."

She couldn't do anything but move as they walked in.

Two other men were with the man that entered first. Another of the same structure but taller and thinner. Then, a normal looking guy but in a suit and a square like chin.

"Kitaimo. This is your last warning. Give us the money."

Her father sat up ever so slowly, along with Chiko's mother, but they didn't speak. He just looked down at his feet. Chiko, trembling all over, held the bills tighter. "Otou-san! Okaa-can! Tell them! You have the money! We- we worked so hard this year! We- we have- it all, right?!"

The three strangers glanced at Chiko, before settling their eyes back on Chiko's parents. "... Search the house," the one with the suit ordered, making the two nod. Soon, the two big men looked at every nook and cranny of the house while her parents stayed motionless, a small dazed smile on their lips.

It was like a blur. The two men searched over the house in less than 30 minutes and informed the man in the suit that they had found two places where they hid the money. Chiko's eyes widened, they had another place? Then perhaps-

The bigger man showed one bill. Chiko fell to her knees. Everything that had worked for. Down the drain. All for nothing. She sobbed to herself.

"...Debt collector-san..." she heard her mother say but Chiko couldn't bring herself to look up. Everything hurt. She was scared. What would happen? But most of all, she felt so betrayed. She had trusted her parents so much. They were doing so much better, so why? Why would they doing this-

She froze up.

It was futile from the start.

Even after a year of hard work, it wasn't enough. That was the only valid explanation. They never told her the sum that had to pay. They just said that it was a lot.

And apparently, what they've done in a year was not enough. So they fell down the hole of dazes, smiles and no sadness. They fell down the hole of fully giving up and spent everything on drugs. The same drugs that were their cause of downfall.

"...Are we dead…?"

Chiko was crouched down to the floor, sobbing and whimpering.

"...No. If you accept something."

Chiko snapped her head up. Were they fine? Did they actually collect their debt-

"If you recall, our organization also specializes in child trafficking."

The sobs and hiccups were gone in an instant. She felt five pairs of eyes on her. She was frozen to the core.

Cold. Cold. Cold.

Freezing, unimaginably cold.

Why were her parents looking at her like that?

"...We hadn't known you had a child."

Was this why they hid her when they came over for the first four years of her life? To keep her identity hidden? So save her? So why are they looking at her like she could save them now?

"The child… won't be enough. But they found a good amount of patches and liquids in one of the cabinets… the boss should be satisfied with this."

"Okaa-san, Otou-san! You-you can't let them say things like that! It's- it's not ok!"

They looked at her, blankly.

...no.

Not blankly.

They looked at her and saw an escape.

Tears continued to fall down. They couldn't do this to her. What about the days they laughed together? The days spent together? The times they were so happy together-

"D-Debt collector-san! Th-they are still under the influence, please- let them come back to their senses!"

They looked down at her and she felt so inferior. So meaningless. So powerless.

She wasn't a person, a child. To them, she was worth as much as simple bills and drugs. Just an object of value.

"We don't have time for that."

She tried to gulp and stood up, wonkily, on her feet. She walked up to the man in the suit. "P-please! I- beg of you! The effect- it should be gone soon!"

"No. That quality of blue-mein will make them stay in their vegetable state for another six hours. Or more."

Chiko looked up, at a loss for words. So it was useless? Then- then the three will die together! Chiko walked to her parents, towards the couch they sat on, and faced the three debt collectors. "W-well, then just-"

She felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. Looking behind her, her eyes shined with hope. Were her parents out of it? Then they could finally-

And she was pushed harshly towards the debt collectors. She fell when she couldn't catch her balance and then looked back, eyes with shock. She saw her mother's still outstretched hands. From when she pushed Chiko.

"Okaa-san..." Chiko mumbled.

No. Please no.

"Be a good girl… Chiko-chan..." her father said.

She couldn't say anything when the bigger debt collector picked her up and walked out of the door. She was thrown over the big man's shoulder and it was uncomfortable but she didn't pay that much attention. No. The ache in her heart grew.

It hurt.

Everything was cold.

Everything hurt.

Her town faded from her eyes as her heart broke.

* * *

**Dada bim daba boom, things aren't looking good for her! **

**Poor kiddo. **

**Good thing you don't need to wait to see more of her suffering! Read on in chapter 3!**


	3. Recycling

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Recycling**

* * *

Her heart hurt far too much to notice what was happening around her.

She let the adults put a heavy metal collar around her neck, as well as shackles around her wrists and ankles. She was between a boy around the same age as her and a girl a bit younger than her, in some basement. But a rocking one. Maybe it was a ship in hindsight, not that Chiko could know then anyways.

Her parents had given her away. To child traffickers.

She could smell the disgusting bodily fluids in the cell as well hear the crying of children. But she didn't care. Her parents. Gave her away.

"...are you ok?"

She wasn't. She wanted to die. Thoughts from a life ago crept inside her and teased her. They wanted to find a tool and drag it down her throat, with the promise that that would feel less painful than the hurt of now.

"No."

The girl shifted next to her.

"Me neither. It's scary here."

Chiko doesn't give a shit about now. Her heart was still stuck on what happened.

"...They said we're gonna be sold… to people with bubbles..."

Chiko's mind went blank. Suddenly the weight of the situation sank in. Her parents had left her. And not only had they left her. But now she's going to be given to someone. Someone who's very likely going to be doing horrible things to her. And that someone may be a World Noble. The ultimate scum in the One Piece universe.

And she may be sold as a slave to one soon.

In hindsight, she agreed with the girl. It is scary here.

She leaned forwards slightly and looked around her, finally registering where she was. Children, everywhere. On the long bench that was attached to the wall or on the ground. All were around her age, the oldest looked around 14. All children.

Her eyes narrowed as she frowned, in fear. In horror. She went back to sit correctly on her seat and looked blankly in front of her. She's going to be sold. And she'll be a slave. For the remainder of her life.

"Close your eyes and don't look, listen, smell or taste when something painful happens to you," Chiko says. It wasn't a solution and it wouldn't do much good. But numbing all senses was the best one could do if… if an owner were to do something to their slave.

"...ok..."

Chiko scowled, hating everything. Everything, everything. It all was not fair. Nothing was fair.

XXX

One glance outside made her heart shrivel up and want to die.

Bubbles coming out from the ground.

A big '1' on a big tree, signalling the grove.

This is it, huh?

She was pushed to be in front of someone at a point. Her chin was forcefully grabbed so some ugly smirking adult could see her face. She tried to snatch her head back, but the hand held on even more tightly and more painfully. The adult even chuckled. "This one's got an attitude. It'll sell well." Chiko scowled as she had the metallic collar removed… only for it to be replaced by another one. She immediately stopped moving. A few adults laughed at her reaction.

"Hah! It figured it out! Yep girlie, you try to take that off and-"

He put his hands by his neck in imitation,

"Boom."

XXX

She was shoved on stage. The lights were blinding. Her eyes were filled with fear but she didn't want that to show. So she glared. She tried to. She tried to scowl.

The announcer said false truths about her.

Soon, numbers. Her face dropped slowly as her eyes widened. People kept increasing the numbers. Different people. So many people. Why were there so many people here? Why are they all so eager about- about this disgusting place? This horribly disgusting concept?

Soon, there was a loud yell with a very big number and the fat man won Chiko.

XXX

The fat man has two other slaves. An older woman and a child a bit older than Chiko. Chiko's the new punching bag for the fat man. She quickly knows that he has anger issues, as if the fights with his wife doesn't say that much.

They fight daily and there's no love in their marriage. But they stay together and take out their anger on the slaves. Mostly on the children, because the older slave prepares the dishes and laundry. The older child is also somewhat useful now, since she cleans rooms.

But Chiko, no. Chiko doesn't know how the house works. Since she doesn't know, she's the punching bag. Bruises, cuts, everything litters her skin. She gets punched for having a bruise on her cheek. Now she has a cut there too.

The older slave is nice though. At night, when the fat man and his wife are asleep, she tries to clean Chiko's wounds. But a wet cloth is not much help. But it's better than nothing. So she sleeps near the two girls that have endured what she's going through now, in the room that was the same size as what she assumed Harry Potter's room size was. Or closet size, he didn't really have a room, now did he.

She tries hard to endure it. To not think that it's her parents that shoved her in this situation. But she does. And it hurts. The betrayal, the pain. Mental and physical. Everything hurts. And because she hurts, she doesn't do her tasks well or fast enough, so she gets pushed down the stairs. Her left shoulder crashed on the ground and a resounding crack was heard through the house.

She had gasped, sobbed, whimpered.

But the older slave came to her, telling her to stop crying or else things will be worse. Chiko asked who it could be worse. Then the older slave told Chiko of her previous owners and Chiko shut up. She shut up because she hadn't realized that the fat man isn't the worst owner out there. Not in the slightest.

The oldest slave dragged her to the backroom and told Chiko that she simply dislocated her shoulder. She thinks at least. Chiko knows it will hurt, but she doesn't want to be sold to another potentially worse owner. Or die through the explosive collar. So the oldest does her best to put the shoulder back in Chiko's socket.

It works after the eleventh try.

Days turned into weeks turned into months.

Then, the window of opportunity slammed open. Most literally. The fat man put the collar remote on the window sill, forgotten when his wife started yelling at him. Chiko, who came into the room to clean it, saw the remote and froze. Her chance.

She glanced back to check if the fat man or the wife would come. When she saw no one, she wobbled over to the window, because the fat man had stepped on her ankle that morning, and went to reach for the remote… except, right then, a gust of wind came. And the remote fell off the open window sill.

Chiko gaped and looked over the sill, despair filling in her… until she heard an explosion on the ground floor. Real despair settled in. She ran as best as she could downstairs, but then- she gasped, tears filling to her eyes. The child slave stood in the middle of the hallway, her neck twisted horribly with soot and blood coming out. The oldest slave stood behind the fat man and the wife and Chiko didn't see how the fat man ranted about weak slaves and how he needed a new one now.

No, she saw the first tears fall down the eldest slave's face.

Chiko never had a sibling before.

But she knew the feeling of losing one in such a manner would break one's resolve. One's spirit. One's hope.

So after Chiko had her a split lip and a handprint on her neck, she stayed still in front of the oldest. The oldest crouched in front of Chiko and hugged her. "Sorry Chiko-chan… but I can't do this anymore."

Chiko understood far too well.

"Hai, Mina-san… thank you for everything."

The oldest smiled sadly and walked to the top floor.

Chiko hugged her knees in the slave room. Even if it was tiny, it felt far too empty and big now.

The next day, she left the house with the fat man and his wife. They were doing some 'slave shopping'. Chiko walked behind them, in her place. It hurt. Inside and outside. She didn't want them to have another slave. Not after what happened. She didn't want slaves to be a thing. But that's all too naive.

That night, a woman that looked like Mina-san slept next to Chiko, weeping. Chiko held her, not knowing what else to do.

The days turned into weeks turned into months turned into one and a half year.

The fat man and the wife had a kid visiting them. About 15 years old if Chiko had to guess. He was worse than the fat man. The kid would push Chiko down all stairs, would force her to not eat, would not even allow her to sleep. A knife was embedded in her hand and she tensed up, looking at the knife that pierced through the left hand. The kid was playing with knives he found in the kitchen and threw a multitude at her. The last one pierced through her hand. Better that rather than the face she was protecting.

"Ew! That's gross, I'm gonna tell uncle!"

Find something to stop the blood flow, that's what Mina-san would say. Find something. Tears fell down her cheeks at the pain. Blood. Knife. Hand.

She looked around and saw the white clothes used for drying dishes. No. She'd get in trouble if she used that. She then looked at her ragged dress. It'll do.

Quickly tearing that, she flinched at the knife. Still in her hand. Ok.

Take it out then bandage it. Putting her right hand on the handle, the tears fell faster. And quickly, she wanked out the knife. Pain flowed through her whole body and she fell to the ground, the bloodied knife on the ground now as well. It hurt.

Her hand. It's shaking. Demanding to be freed from the pain.

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

But she had to stand up and clean herself up or this hurt hand won't be the only thing she's feeling. So she stood with shaky feet and every so slowly, walked towards the sink. Rinse. For no infections.

With her bloodied right hand, she turned the knob on the sink… and put her injured hand there. She yelped, feeling even more pain. It stung. It stung so much. It hurt. It's painful. Deciding that that was enough, she turned off the knob with shaky hands. Then, as best as she could, she tied her self made bandage. Tightly, to stop the blood flow. She saw the blood soak the makeshift bandage already and she hoped that the bleeding would stop or else she'd get in more trouble.

"There she is! Look, ew! Disgusting!"

She looked back and saw that fat man. And he was seething.

"How dare you, you bitch?!"

His ringed hand back slapped her cheek and she fell to the ground. "My poor, cute nephew could have gotten hurt! How dare you!" He kicked her, her ribs, everything. The small mercy was that he soon left after spitting on her face and ordering her to get cleaned up before he sees her next time, then walked out and called for the kid.

The kid laughed at her misery. "Serves you, slave."

He then stepped on her injured hand, making her gasp in pain. He laughed even harder and hopped away. Her injured hand trembled with pain and she couldn't stand from the pain. She wept. She couldn't keep doing this anymore- it- it was impossible. How had Mina-san done this for so many years?

"Chiko-chan…?"

Chiko opened her eyes, even with hazy sight, she knew it was the new oldest. "I… let me help you. They have gone to bed."

The eldest dragged Chiko to the back room and replaced Chiko's made shift bandage with something else. She had said she'd clean up the room Chiko was in and left to do that while Chiko remained unmoving, aside from the trembling. Soon, she came back and started treating Chiko further. Chiko wept silently for the rest of the night, the eldest weeping next to her as well.

XXX

Her hand ached. It hurt.

"Ew, your slave is broken, uncle!"

Chiko's eyes widened. The eldest and Chiko glanced at each other, both fearing the worst. "Huh, you're right… oh well, let's throw the smallest one away and get a new one, huh?"

Chiko's eyes widened. No. She didn't want to die. Not again. No-

"No cousin! Mother said recycling is important! You should sell her again. Plus, you'll get money back too!"

Sold… back…?

Before she knew it, she held Isabella's hand, "Please, survive Isa-san," Chiko whispered to the now only slave of this horrible household. Isabella smiled sadly. "I will try, Chiko-chan." Then, the fat man's nephew dragged Chiko using a lease to the slave house. As if this was an outing with a dog.

The ground was green and she could vaguely see bubbles sometimes. So she was still in that god forsaken grove island, huh? And to think this island arc was one of her favorites back in her previous life. Soon, they arrived at where she was sold a bit less than two years ago.

The slave auctioneer was obviously discontent with Chiko's state, but after the fat man gave him money, without the nephew knowing, the auctioneer accepted. The fat man's young, horrible nephew was given a pat on the head at his thoughtfulness while Chiko was dragged back into the slave filled building and shoved in a too big cell, with too many broken people. She stayed laying there.

She knew she wouldn't get sold anytime soon.

Or ever, period.

Not in her state, no.

So she stayed laying there, unmoving, uncaring.

Sometimes, she was force fed. More occasionally, she was forced to drink. She supposes that they had to keep slaves alive to sell them after all. After who knows how long, she sat up. Which seemed to surprise someone next to her.

"Holy shit kid- I thought you were fucking dead. You haven't moved an inch since the day you came in days ago."

She weakly, her back still crouched horribly. She tried looking at her hand, but she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes. So she didn't. The pain in her hand somewhat dulled though, which is not too bad of a sign she supposes.

"Surprise," she muttered dryly and sarcastically.

The man next to her scoffed. "Well, dead or your state, I don't see no difference."

She noticed that it took more effort to breathe. So she really was dying. She also felt too warm. Maybe a fever? Wouldn't surprise her if that was the case.

"Two negatives make a positive," she muttered again.

"Hah?" Was the man's response.

"Y'said 'don't see no difference'. Two negatives make a positive," she repeated. "Basic math you fuckin' moron."

She shouldn't continue talking like this she realized, it was wasting precious breathing. Something that was currently limited.

At that, the man stayed silent. Until he started laughing. "Kid's got spunk!"

She didn't respond, but she'd be lying if she said that that laughter did not make her feel better.

Days passed next that man. He would try to get Chiko to talk, but he only got fewer and fewer words by each time he managed to get her to talk. On what Chiko thinks is the sixth week in this cell, the man who still remained unsold sighed.

"You've been speaking less."

Breathing has gotten hard to do. Her hand, she realized, was infected and her fever is as bad as could be. She'd be surprised if she survived the next few days. At least her last few days were spent with a joyful man.

"You're dying, aren't you, kid?"

Well someone was somewhat smart.

"No shit, Sherlock." She coughed at that, pain blossoming on her throat and throughout her whole body. The man stayed silent and whispered, 'Sherlock?' curiously under his breath. He looked at the small companion he's had for the past weeks. It disgusted him how they still held onto a child like her for so long. She was obviously dying and yet they kept her alive in a rotting cell behind a slave house. He has been fine for the weeks, eating what little the guards would give and drinking what was given.

He knew he also wouldn't be sold unless a private suggestion would come in for an old, ugly, scarred, skinny man. He also knew he lived a long life, unlike the crouched brat next to him that spoke with words that were older than her.

He huffed… maybe he had to call it quits. Who cares what the first mate said about slaves, he'd break the rules this once. So, he pulsed a power within him and then patiently started to wait. He didn't even know if there was time left for the girl but… might as well try.

An hour later, a man he recognized very well stood on the other side of the cell bars. "Finished sulking, Kichi?" the man on the outside of the cell bars asked, a smile on his face. The shackled man next to Chiko scowled. "Fuck no! But-"

Kichi glanced at Chiko, who was already lost in her own mind of nothingness and pain.

The man on the other side of the bars frowned. "You know the rules."

Kichi scowled. "I know, but… she's a goddamn kid. She's been here for weeks, longer than me… she's got a few days, tops, left."

"If you save her, are you doing to save everyone else?"

Kichi scowled, "You know I can't-! Just- C'mon man, let her be the exception!"

Chiko coughed and hacked, feeling something wet and gross come out of her mouth. Her eyes remained shut nonetheless, feeling far too tired. Kichi let out a sigh, looking at the fresh blood the kid coughed. She's been doing that for the past four days.

"Just her. She's just a kid. She seriously shouldn't be here."

The man on the other side scowled… and sighed. "Fine."

Kichi looked up and nodded at the man. The man walked off, a goal in his mind. Kichi looked down at his little companion and stood up. He crouched down in front of her and frowned at the sight. Blood was splattered everywhere around her mouth and...he looked at her hand and cringed. That didn't look good either.

"Hey, girl..."

Chiko flinched, not expecting to hear a voice so close to her. She tried to move away from the voice in front of her.

"I-I, I'm sorry- I don't know- I didn't mean to- to put blood anywhere-" she started coughing and hacking, wheezing for air now. Kichi's heart ached at the sight, not having expected her to react this badly.

"Girl, girl, please- it's alright, I won't hurt you..."

She stilled a bit, recognizing the voice. She slowly stopped trembling and instead started breathing heavily, feeling somewhat safe. "Look, you're gonna get out of here. But make no sound, ok? You'll be safe. A friend of mine will take you away."

She tried to think it through, to process his words. But she couldn't. That took far too much energy. So she simply bowed her head down.

Kichi bit his bottom lip. He was always so indecisive. Maybe it was too late…?

There was a quiet clunk and soon, Kichi looked behind him to see that his friend had opened the door. "Just the girl," he said, making Kichi nod. So the friend walked inside the cell and took Chiko in his arms. Kichi went back to sit on the bench, feeling a bit relieved.

"Take care of her."

His friend chuckled, "I'll do what I wish."

He walked back out of the cell door and locked the door, putting the keys on a hanger close by. "Oh, and Kichi..."

Kichi hummed.

"Stop being foolish, Roger wants to see you again."

Kichi scoffed, "I'll see captain soon enough. Now get outta here Rayleigh."

The friend chuckled, "you owe me one."

And like that, with no trace, the girl and his friend were gone. Kichi grinned, feeling a whole lot better.

* * *

**I love you so much Rayleigh~~ What a babe, that man!**

**Anyways, that's the long preview I'm offering for now. I have the next few chapters down, but they'll probably come out in a week or so. What to say, what to say... well, this is the first canon character! Next chapter will be filled with lots of new characters! And also, this wraps up this part of her childhood! (probably)**

**Hope you liked the chapters so far!**

**Once again, if you're interested in becoming a beta for this story, PM me! It would be much appreciated. **


	4. At your service, sir

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: At your service, sir**

* * *

This felt… familiar.

The rocking. As if on sea… on the ship of the child traffickers. On the way to be sold. To the fat man, the wife and the cousin. Only to be thrown back in that cell.

Was she back to being sold somewhere else now?

Or maybe she was already bought and was transported off somewhere?

"Oh! The girl's awake, call Ray-san!"

… call Ray-san…?

How did they know she was awake if-

Why is she sleeping? What happened? And why- why did she feel better? For the first time in a long time, she feels… warm. She opens her eyes. It's bright. So bright. She winced and closed her eyes again, taking time to close and open them.

Is this a sick joke from the nephew maybe?

The nephew... her hand.

She lifted up her left hand so that it'd be over her face and gently dropped it to her face… bandages. It felt rough, just like medical bandages. Lifting her hand off her, she looked at her hand. Actual bandages. White, clean ones. What was happening? Where was she? Was she really sold again to someone? Why would they bother healing her up- unless- she's being brought back to shape to be in perfect condition to be bought again?

That- that'd make sense.

She heard something shuffle to the side. She turned her head to the left… and saw a face. A man.

She flinched harshly and scooted as far as possible further away from him. Shutting her eyes down, she held out her injured hand. She didn't want to speak, but hopefully he would only strike her injured hand and then deem that as enough.

"...Hey there..."

She flinched again. His voice is deep. But it didn't sound at all like the fat man's or like the nephew's. Another family member then? … But it sounded so different.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, little missy..."

She put her injured hang to her body, trying to be as small as possible.

He sounded too nice. She didn't want to trust him. She trusted her parents.

"I promise, you're safe here..."

Tears filled her eyes and hugged herself even more. It's been so long since she felt so warm. So… in touch. She didn't want to believe the man, but she couldn't help herself. It's been so long.

"You promise…?"

The man sounded a warm chuckle.

"I promise."

XXX

The next time she had woken up, she realized she was in a very comfortable bed. Under some thick and warm covers.

So it wasn't a dream.

She really was safe.

It had been so long…

"Ah, you're awake again."

She looked to the side and saw a woman. Chiko blinked. She looked familiar. She had a drink in her hand while a sort of cigarette hung from her lips. Chiko hid under the covers, unknowing of what to do. The woman giggled, smiling.

"I'll get him, ok?"

Chiko didn't move but the woman nodded and walked out of the room. Once out, Chiko pushed the cover away from her face and looked behind her, towards the door, where the woman walked out. She looked around and saw that with the bed she was in, there were four other beds in the room that were unoccupied. The beds occupied the better half of the room. Behind her were two desks and shelves stacked with bottles of what looked like medicine and ingredients, as well as books and papers.

An infirmary. Or a medical bay. On a ship.

Chiko looked to her arm and saw IV thingies stuck in her. Her left hand was bandaged as well. She felt itchiness throughout her body and looked under her shirt, that she knew wasn't hers, and saw bandages around her chest and stomach as well.

Her ankle also felt heavy, so she pulled the covers and saw one of her ankles was in a cast.

They really looked at all her injuries.

A new sort of giddy excitement filled inside of her. Maybe she really was saved? Maybe the torture would finally be over? She couldn't help but have her legs bounce up and down softly, her knees occasionally rocking on each other, while a smile itched on her face.

"Someone's happy."

She stopped all movements immediately and snapped her head to the left.

The man.

Blond, almost orange like hair. Tall. Round glasses. Single scar of his right eye. Weird striped beard. Her eyes widened in realization. He's… he's…

The man smiled, "So you finally recognize me, didn't think you'd be able to do that. But it makes things easier then." Chiko stayed staring wide eyed at him.

"I'm Silvers Rayleigh. Who might you be?"

She gulped.

The Silvers Rayleigh saved her from the slavery? From the fat man?

"...Ki… Kitaimo Hachiko..."

Rayleigh smiled.

"Hachiko-chan then," he said.

No, she hated being called that.

Because she's not a dog.

And she'd never wait for her owners.

"Chiko."

Rayleigh blinked but smiled nonetheless. "Chiko-chan," he corrected and she softly nodded.

She blinked. Warmth swelled inside of her. In this life, she never felt safer than this. Because she knew, she knew with all of her heart that Rayleigh is a good person. She knew he wouldn't harm her, not without purpose. She knew he wouldn't shove her in the hands of slavery.

She felt… so free.

It felt wrong.

It felt too good to be true.

"Rayleigh-san…?" she asked, her voice wavering.

"Yes?"

"Did… did you save me?"

"My friend and I did, yes."

"Rayleigh-san…?"

"Yes?"

"Will the fat man… and his wife and nephew come back…?"

"No, they won't ever."

"Rayleigh-san?"

"Yes?"

"... Will you give me to the child traffickers for drugs?"

"No, I never will."

Drops of tears fell down her face.

"Thank you, Rayleigh-san."

"It's my pleasure, Chiko-chan."

XXX

"Can you eat?" he asked, sitting next to the child. Chiko looked at the soup on his lap. How long has it been since she ate something warm…? Would it be a good idea to eat something warm? Maybe it would burn her whole digestive system.

"I think so… but it's been some time since I ate something warm… could I maybe have something cold…?"

She heard him hum. "How about you try it? If you really can't drink it, I'll get you something cold. Deal?"

She frowned softly… she supposes that made sense. So she nods. He puts the tray on her lap and she looks at the warm meal. It looks so good. It seems so good. She bets it tastes good as well.

With a trembling hand, she took the spoon and took a bit of the liquid with it. She slowly brought it to her lips and with a bit of hesitance, placed it in her mouth. She clenched her eyes shut in anticipation for the worst… only to taste the best thing in the world. Her eyes started to shine, unknowing that tears were sliding down her face one again. She looked at Rayleigh, "This- this is delicious!"

He didn't speak but smiled, so she continued eating, slowly.

He didn't have the heart to tell her that was most literally just tomatoes with medicine and minimal spice.

Half way through the small bowl, she stopped eating. Rayleigh blinked.

"Too hot?"

He made sure to tell the cook to have it medium, even leaning towards cool. But she shook her head.

"I-I'm sorry, Rayleigh-san… if I eat more, I think I'll puke. I've eaten too much..."

He blinked again and looked at the soup. It was just half way eaten. And the bowl wasn't that big to begin with. Just like Crocus said, her stomach literally shrank, she couldn't eat a lot. But Rayleigh hadn't expected this little.

"...Are you sure?"

She had to regain her forces.

Chiko furrowed her brows and looked at the soup. Maybe… she could...once more…? Until she dropped the spoon on the tray and held her right hand to her mouth, resisting the urge to gag and empty her stomach, not wanting to puke the wonderful meal she just had.

"Ok, ok! Yes, that's enough!" He easily took the tray from her lap and put it on the ground next to him. He eyed her carefully, hoping she wouldn't puke it all out. But soon, she seemed to hold it in and then leaned back on the bed. She looked at Rayleigh and gave him a thumbs up.

Not knowing what else to do, he gave a thumbs up back.

Rayleigh told her he had to go so she nodded and he walked out with the tray. He sighed. Taking care of a kid was more trouble than he thought it would be. He walked to the kitchen and set the tray of half eaten food on the counter. He let out a deep sigh.

"Oh, Rayleigh. Finished being a mother bird?"

Rayleigh looked up towards the should-be-empty-tables and saw his captain sitting with the third mate and his wife. Rayleigh raised an eyebrow and sent a wink at Shakuyaku, who giggled in response. "What's this about being a mother bird? I'm saving a kid's life while you're all drinking," he said, grinning as he stole some booze from Shakky's hands.

"How is she? The little bird?" His captain asked, a grin on his face. Rayleigh sighed.

"Better, but she's eating a tiny bit. Less than what Crocus thought. The kid's seriously traumatized. She probably spent a few years as a slave before being dumped back in the auction house."

Shakky sighed, saddened by the thought. "Poor girl..."

His Captain also scowled. "World Nobles and their mess in the Void Century..." he mumbled, a few agreeing hums sounded around him. Nonetheless, Rayleigh crossed his arms. "But it's looking up. She's opening up, Chiko's her name. With how this is going, she should be jumping around soon."

At that, Roger laughed. "Ray's little bird's gonna be flying soon. Cheers!"

"What, my wha-"

"Cheers!"

XXX

Chiko played with the blanket, feeling a bit anxious to do anything. She couldn't just walk around yet cause the IV stuff was still attached to her. More than anything, she wanted to see Rayleigh again.

She was so happy that all the mess was done now. The fat man. The slavery. Her- her parents. As much as she hated to admit it. She was glad she was no longer with her parents. While she was happy while it lasted, she doubted she could ever love her parents anymore. Not after what they've done. It ached her to admit it. But it was the truth.

She never ever wanted to see their faces ever again in her whole existence.

She heard the door open and she looked behind… to see a weird person. Black hair with a sort of pink bandana. Then… these sorts of yellow… things came out the back of his head. And his beard was weird. It looked like a bushy moustache dropped down to the bottom of his chin.

Rayleigh is much more handsome.

The two looked at each other.

"You look like a plant, parrot, mushroom breed with muscles sprinkled on top."

He didn't blink and she didn't blink either.

"...You shouldn't say that, or someone'll get hurt..."

They continued staring.

"Oh yeah?"

The person behind the weird man stayed silent, looking at this in amusement.

"Yeah, you'll hurt my feelings."

At that, Chiko snorted and then started coughing while laughing. The man's, who she concluded was definitely Crocus, lip twitched upwards as he picked up a couple of pills from his desk as well as took a water bottle and went to sit on the chair Rayleigh had sat on.

"Drink this squirt."

With no sort of hesitance and complete trust, she took the two pills and the water bottle and drank with no complaints. Crocus internally sighed. If only Buggy was as fussy as her, as well as Shanks, then things would be so much simpler.

"I'm Crocus, I heard you're Chiko?" he asked, taking the water bottle once she finished drinking. She nodded.

"Yep. Chiko."

She had figured he was Crocus when he responded the way that he did. "Crocus-san?" she asked, making him hum and leaned back.

"Did you know your name is the same as a flower? Is that why you have those on your head?"

Curious kid that.

"Yeah."

Chiko blinked, and waited for a bit for the elaboration.

...no long answer then.

"So-"

"My mother liked the flowers, we used to have a big garden and crocuses would grow in a multitude. It became her favorite."

Chiko blinked, not having expected so many details. "That's amazing! Gardens are fun, you can grow so many different things in them," she grinned, "I'm very bad at taking care of plants though, so I'd leave it to people who are better."

Crocus raised an eyebrow. A chatterbox then?

"I killed a cactus once. I don't know how I managed to do that."

That fact made Crocus blink.

"You killed a cactus?"

Chiko nodded somberly.

"Yes, it was quite sad."

"... That's just sad. Not 'quite', just sad, brat."

"Ok Crocus-san, stop bringing Chiko-chan down. Everyone has their talents." The new-ish voice made Chiko perk up. Looking around, she saw the same woman lean against a table. Shakky.

"A talent that is," Crocus grumbled but stayed put. Shakky walked up to Chiko and smiled down at the younger girl. "Hello Chiko-chan, I'm Shakky. It's nice to meet you." Chiko nodded mutely. Shakky looked so cool. Very suave and casual and smart. Chiko hoped that when she would be in her prime, then people would look at her the same.

"It's nice to meet you as well Shakky-san! I- I really like your style!"

Shakky blinked, before she giggled into her hands and smiled gently at the little girl. "Thank you very much." Chiko grinned. Shakky also seemed to be a genuinely nice person.

"Don't I have a good style?" Chiko heard from Crocus and she looked towards him. She blinked.

"Are you serious man?"

Shakky stifled her laughter at the face Crocus was now pulling. Chiko merely grinned cheekily at the older man. Soon, the door opened again and Rayleigh walked in. Chiko lit up seeing the man she was familiar with and the grin died when a man she did not recognize followed behind Rayleigh.

A possible traitor?

Maybe a backstabber?

Everyone in the room did not miss her change in expressions and Rayleigh sighed ever so lightly. He had told the man behind him that this was too early to have the girl meet so many different people.

She stayed quiet and looked at her hand, shuffling closer to the wall and further away from everyone. Fear started to grip at her heart and stomach, as doubt started to fill inside her. Maybe she shouldn't talk so much with people she just met. It would ultimately come to her downfall.

"Chiko-chan..." she heard Rayleigh's smooth voice and she was ashamed to have flinched at it. Rayleigh didn't let a frown show but he was curious as to why she reacted so well with him, Crocus and Shakky, but not this newcomer.

"We're on a ship right now," he informed her of what she already knew, "And on each ship, there's a captain."

Chiko blinked. Right, yes, that made sense.

"This is Captain Roger, the captain of this ship."

Chiko blinked again. Captain Roger.

At that, she immediately froze up, putting everyone in the room on edge.

Captain Roger, Pirate King. Of course, she should've realized that he was on board. This is the Roger Pirates, Rayleigh, second hand man of the Pirate King. Of course. The one that knew of the world's secrets, the one that shook the marines and government to their core. Of course.

Of course he would be on this ship.

It's his ship.

And Rayleigh trusts him, as well as Shakky and Crocus. Anyone that Rayleigh can trust, is trustworthy.

So, with determination and fear, she inhaled deeply and exhaled. Come on Chiko. She turned over to face Rayleigh, and then looked up to meet his eyes. Rayleigh nodded slowly. So she then looked over to the tall man next to him.

Roger.

Gol D. Roger.

The Pirate King stood before her.

"Hello missy, I'm the Pirate King. Gol D. Roger."

Chiko stared at him, trying to figure out how to react and what to say to that.

Meanwhile, the three other people in the room held their tongue about how that was the worse way to introduce one's self to a child who came out of slavery. Rayleigh held in the groan. Did he have to tell her he's Pirate King? He knew his captain was very, too, proud of that fact, but come on.

"Hello Captain-san."

The Pirate King wouldn't use slaves, right?

Doubt crept back in.

Rayleigh wouldn't use slaves, right?

Chiko remembered when he was in the slave auction from the story of her previous life, he had mentioned how he went to being sold many times to steal from the owners. But he never tried to save any of the slaves, not really. Chiko doesn't remember Rayleigh being disgusted by the idea of slaves.

Crocus frowned when he saw doubt and fear fill the girl's eyes.

But Chiko couldn't do anything now. No. She's at their mercy.

So she bowed her head to the Pirate King.

"My name is Kitaimo Hachiko. At your service, sir."

Fat man always liked it when she said 'at your service', so this should be fine. She hopes it's fine. There was a silence as she kept her head down.

"Hachiko, huh?"

She hates the name. So much. With all her might.

But she had to bite her tongue.

"Yes, sir."

And all the progress Rayleigh worked on, albeit not that much because things were weirdly smooth at the beginning, but the progress is all gone. Rayleigh sent a glare at his captain, who wasn't paying attention at all to his second mate and instead had a serious expression settle on his face. One that Rayleigh recognized as the 'I am searching' serious face.

Then, something lit up in his mind and he chuckled, apparently having found what he was searching for.

"Rest up, little bird."

Then, Roger walked out. Rayleigh frowned softly. Even after many years spending time with his captain, he still sometimes didn't know what he was thinking. Oh well, he will inquire about it later. Now… Rayleigh looked at Chiko who was sitting back against her bed properly, looking at her hands. Now... to fix this.

XXX

She knew she was being paranoid, but as someone once said, a little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone…

So she quietly ate the delicious soup as Shakky looked over her. The older woman saw the change when Roger had walked in. It was like a flick of the switch. Had Roger really put fear in the kid's heart? Shakky supposed being a Pirate King does that sort of thing to children…

"Chiko-chan?" she asked gently. The child looked from the soup, up to Shakky. Doubt. Paranoia. Was such emotions instilled into her because of the captain? She had a feeling that it was more than that. Maybe she felt betrayed because they were pirates? Kids tended to feel an exaggerated amount of emotions than what they should actually feel.

Chiko didn't respond, so she continued, "What's your favorite color?"

Chiko blinked. What was Shakky's motives? Why would she ask such a useless question? Maybe to test her. Would she get punished if she answered incorrectly? But what was correct?

So she gulped. "It's technically not a color, but white."

Shakky smiled, "Oh? Why is it your favorite?"

Chiko moved the spoon around in the soup. "It's not that I like how it looks. White is the combination of all colors. I like how that one 'color' represents all colors in existence, even the ones that we can't see, equally."

Shakky blinked. Ok well she didn't expect an answer like that. Chiko sweated a bit, maybe that was too elaborate, perhaps she offended Shakky-

"That's very meaningful. I hadn't thought about it before," Shakky giggles, "Now it makes my reason for liking purple not good."

Chiko nodded a bit. "...Purple is still very nice. It's a rich color."

Shakky sat down on the chair next to the bed while Chiko sipped on the soup. "Isn't it? It reminds me of lavender, I love the smell of them." It brought Chiko back to memories from the past life. Lavender does have a very nice smell, even if it was incredibly strong.

"They do smell nice."

Shakky smiled. "You're also very knowledgeable about flowers, I see."

It was something to read at the library. There was an encyclopedia on basic flowers, crocus and lavender were one of them. Unfortunately, there weren't many flowers back at her home island. The weather was too drastic to have any good flowers… well, except for one.

"Dandelions grew on my island," Chiko then said.

Shakky felt like she was moving in the right direction and put her elbows to her knees, inching closer to Chiko.

"Oh? That's nice."

Chiko nodded.

"They grow where they're not supposed to and they're pretty annoying."

Chiko blinked.

"They remind me of myself."

XXX

Shakky sighed and closed the medical bay door behind her. The kid was more broken than she thought. She took out a cigarette and easily lit one up and started walking towards the deck, where Rayleigh and Roger were talking.

The two spotted her. "Any luck?" Rayleigh asked and Shakky shrugged. "Chiko-chan's broken. I managed to open up a bit, but… well," she told them of her and Chiko's latest conversation and the two men grimaced. Shakky crossed her arms, "She grew up too quickly and she's too smart. And she's terrified of Captain."

Rayleigh closed his eyes and stroked his beard. Kichi seriously owed him one. Roger stayed silent. They knew they couldn't keep Chiko for too long. A pirate's ship is not the place for a broken child… well, speaking about 'child'.

"Wait, when are we gonna pick up Shanks and Buggy?"

* * *

**There you go! This chapter is a bit early but I was excited so here you go!**

**What do you think? Poor Chiko-chan! But now is the influx of canon characters! **

**Reviews are love, hope you liked this chapter. **

**See you in the next chapter**


	5. Recovery to Laughter

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Recovery to Laughter**

* * *

Chiko looked at her fingers.

So maybe it was all paranoia. The crew didn't seem to have any slaves, after a not very subtle question was asked to Rayleigh. Plus, the three, Rayleigh, Shakky and Crocus, seemed very nice. Shakky seemed to catch on that Chiko didn't have a child's intelligence and spoke with the right regard. Something Chiko... was pleasantly surprised and delighted by.

Crocus would humor her occasionally when he checked up on her, sometimes talking about the dumb injuries the crew would get. He managed to get a smile from her when he told her that once Rayleigh had to stay in the medical bay after Shakky and him had a fight.

Rayleigh would check up on her as well, but she knew each time he came, he would analyze her. Try to figure out what happened to her before she was... saved. And what happened when Captain Gol. D Roger came to visit her. She's pretty sure he already had a pretty good idea of what happened, since he didn't pry. But she could also tell that babysitting a child was not his favorite thing to do. Especially since he is the second mate of the Pirate King.

Chiko gulped. Things were fine now. If they really wanted to hurt her, they would have done so a long time ago, right? And the fact that she wasn't opening up, and they knew she wasn't opening up, made this whole process much slower.

She knew what was wrong with her. Something similar to PTSD. Or just, plain ol' PTSD. She has seen Crocus' notes of her, they were the symptoms. At night she would wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes she would get flashes of memories of the fat man and phantom pains on her hand. That somehow healed. She could've sworn she needed to get that amputated. The hand was still in bandages, and was tended daily by Crocus.

But she knew if she didn't try, then she'd get nowhere. If you don't try, you'll get thrown off. And now she was leeching off the Pirate King's crew. She was, in its most basic form, a burden to the most dangerous crew in the world.

But what if they hurt her if she tries to do anything? Even if that anything is merely walking?

Yes, but they will hurt her nonetheless if she does nothing.

Because doing nothing is the same as being useless and the Pirate King doesn't need garbage on his ship.

Besides, the best cure to PTSD, if there even is one, is to stay motivated and to move on. That's what those movies from a previous life said worked best. Who knows if it's true. In any case, she won't be able to 'stay motivated and move on' if she stayed in bed, doing nothing. And wasting precious medical supplies. She gulped. Crocus had removed the IV things from her arm three days ago so now she could move without any constraints, aside from the bandages at her hand and around her waist.

Moving her feet over the side of the bed, she slowly got off the bed. Her feet touched the cool planks of wood. The trousers and shirt she was given, Rayleigh said it was some spare kids clothes they had, was a bit big on her but they still hung on her form well enough. Brown shorts that reached past her knees, with a white, red striped shirt.

She slowly walked towards the door.

She set her hands on the door handle, her heart beat against her chest…

And she opened the door.

Fresh air hit her. Salty, fresh air. The sounds of people moving and working were all around her, as well as calls of seagulls flying over. She closed the door behind her, noting how a few adults had glanced at her but continued with their work. She started to walk alongside the wall, wanting to go towards a railing of the deck to see the seawater.

So her small unclothed feet dragged themselves across the floor and down to the deck. She took time to walk down the stairs to the deck, because one of her ankles was still bandaged. But eventually she reached the deck where people were moving things around. Then, she went up the railing and was the perfect height so that her head was just a bit over the top of the railing.

She put her hands on the railing and went to her tip toes and looked at the ocean.

This… this felt nice.

Occasionally, she felt drops of seat water on her skin.

This is nice.

Free.

She could finally breathe.

"Oh? Ray-san's lil bird is out?"

She flinched and turned around quickly, pressing her back on the rails. She saw a tall woman carrying a big crate with just her hands. Chiko would have gaped if she didn't feel so intimidated.

So she gulped.

"Who's what?"

The woman laughed, turning to face Chiko directly. "Rayleigh-san's little bird. He's been a coo hen about you, ever since you've come on board!" She barked out in laughter again, as if a funny thought came to her mind.

Chiko didn't flinch quite as much and instead took in the information with curiosity. A coohen? She wasn't familiar with that terminology.

"Really?"

The woman nodded and then froze and crouched down quickly next to Chiko, making Chiko flinch back. The woman put a hand next to her mouth, lowering her voice to whispers. "Don't let him know I said that, he'll definitely kick my ass if he knows." Chiko blinked, trying to register what she said. Until.

Click.

"Are you saying that I now have blackmail material against you?"

The woman gaped at Chiko while Chiko grinned mischievously -or at least tried, she wondered if the woman saw her lip quivering- at the older woman. "No! It's not! Don't you even dare, you brat," the woman whispered harshly back. Chiko shrugged, looking away from the woman with a small smile. "Yes m'am."

It felt nice to not be handled as if she was a fragile little thing. Something warm settled in her stomach. The woman huffed and stood up correctly while still carrying that crate, muttering how she should've just ignored the kid. So when she was going to walk off, Chiko was by her side. "Can I walk with you?"

Interactions still terrified her and she hoped the woman wouldn't hit her or be disgusted for asking such a question. But she… naively hoped for the best. Because she wanted to get better. She wanted to stop the feeling of crying that crept towards her ever so often and she wanted to stop flinching all the time. She wanted to trust this woman and Rayleigh and everyone else, even if deep down she's terrified they would stab her back. She had to hang on something, and if it had to be childish hope, then she would cling onto it. Or else she'd be clinging on memories of people that hurt her physically, mentally and emotionally. She wanted to forget that. Forget and make it cease to exist. Ignorance is a bliss and she truly believes that, so she'll make herself ignorant of her past.

As if it's that easy.

"Yeah sure, come on the other side though so that I can at least see you."

Chiko looked at the older man in small astonishment, surprised that she agreed. Which... is silly, because Chiko asked such a question in hope for a positive answer... right? The child blinked once before letting out a careful smile and walked to the woman's left, since the older woman was carrying the huge box on her right shoulder. Then the two started walking somewhere. Chiko was careful to neither be too close, as to disturb the woman, or too far, to alarm the woman. People were heard talking to each other, as well as the sound of laughter and feet stomping around them. A very lively ship this is. The woman was whistling a tune that Chiko found familiar, definitely a song she remembered from her previous life... a common song from the anime One Piece?

"Ah."

Chiko looked up at the woman, who had her eyes lit up as if she remembered something. The adult glanced down at Chiko with a concentrated look that put Chiko on edge. Did she do something wrong? Perhaps she walked too close- or too far? Maybe she's disturbing-

"So kid, I've been told something a few days ago."

Chiko froze up ever so slightly, and then nodded hesitantly. Told something? What? Did she do something? Maybe it's because she was disrespectful to the Captain- but she was sure to be polite. What did she do? Would she get punished? The woman, with her left hand, pulled something out of her pocket. Chiko carefully watched what the woman pulled out and blinked a few times, untensing. Her previous thoughts vanished... is that a whistle?

"Someone told me that brats can hear lots of more than adults. I wanna test it out. Tell me if you can hear something, ready?"

Ah, she must be talking about how children can hear a larger range of frequencies compared to adults. Yeah it's-

A harsh, loud, high pitched sound came from the whistle and Chiko winced.

"It works, it works!"

The woman stopped and looked at the whistle in amazement.

"Child repeller," she mumbled in wonder. Chiko looked at her blankly. Child repeller, seriously? "Yes, but also it attracts animals probably. Dogs and cats mostly, but also birds if the whistle reaches the right frequencies," Chiko informed her, wondering how the educational system in the One Piece worked.

The woman scoffed, disregarding how Chiko spoke. "I'll take dogs over brats any day!" She then glanced at Chiko, "No offence lil bird." Chiko shrugged softly, "None taken." Soon they reached a door that the woman easily opened. Inside were crates and crates of what seemed to contain powder. Ah, gunpowder. Pirate ship. Right. "The smell a home," the woman sighed blissfully, setting the crate down.

Chiko kept her mouth shut from telling the woman that her home fucking stinks then and Chiko looked around, closing the door behind her. "What is this place?" she asked as the woman started inspecting other crates. "Stock, for guns and cannons. We also have a few explosives… I think. I did A LOT last time." The woman continued looking at a few crates and at a point grinned at an open crate, mumbling something that sounded like 'my babies'. Chiko hummed… until she froze and looked at the woman.

"...You use explosives?"

"Ahha!" the woman yelled in triumph. She looked up and then faced Chiko… three dynamite in her hand. Now she started juggling them. "Yeah, I'm the explosion master. Blew up a marine base a few weeks back. Didn't know Captain had my babies stocked up again!"

Chiko was reminded of someone.

"Art is a bang, un?"

The woman let out a sharp laugh and nodded, "Definitely! I knew I'd like you, lil bird!" Chiko grew a small smile at the woman's words while the woman put the dynamites back in their safe boxes. The two walked back out and they heard shouting on the deck. Chiko blinked, unconsciously moving closer to the woman. Meanwhile, the woman put a hand on Chiko's shoulder and frowned. Chiko was now hyper-aware of a hand on her shoulder and could barely think of the commotion on deck.

"C'mon lil bird," the woman dropped her hand from Chiko's shoulder and walked forwards. Meanwhile Chiko blinked, shook her head a bit, and hurried behind the woman she was starting to like. As they moved towards the deck, they saw a small crowd near the railing where Chiko had stood. Chiko and the woman could see everything well because the deck was a floor lower than where they stood now.

Chiko blinked. What was Rayleigh doing?

He was talking quickly to Shakky, pointing towards the ocean while Shakky also seemed worried, looking overboard. A few people joined in, shouting in words. What was happening? Did someone fall overboard? Chiko went closer to the woman.

"Rayleigh-san, she didn't fall in!"

"I can't sense her. Where is she then?"

"We- we don't know! Somewhere on board? If she fell, we would have seen it!"

"You didn't see her walking off either, then why would you see her if she fell overboard?"

"Rayleigh-san has a point, lil bird could've fallen overboard. She was trying to look at the water last I saw her-"

Rayleigh removed his dark shirt, shoved said shirt to Shakky and was about to jump in. That is until the woman next to Chiko started to laugh and picked Chiko up under her armpits. Chiko's heart jumped and got stuck at her throat at the abrupt motion. The hair at the back of her neck stood and she started to feel very, very cold. Her eyes narrowed and blurred, her breath quickened and shortened and she completely forgot about the commotion. She just knew she was at the woman's mercy now.

"Ray-san, calm down!" she yelled. Rayleigh stopped moving and went to look up at Chiko and the woman from the deck. "Lil bird's here! She was helping me!"

A sigh of relief waved through the ship.

Chiko blinked, unexpectedly feeling warm at the sound of relief from the strangers. She could focus again, her eyesight becoming normal and instead of feeling cold... she felt warm. On her cheeks. Her whole face felt warm actually. She looked down, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the attention despite the giddy feeling in her stomach. Rather than her heart slowing down dramatically, it sped up. But not in... panic, not like how she felt when she woke up from nightmares. No. It was more... positive. It was hard to describe and it felt selfish, but she liked the feeling nonetheless and she untensed in the woman's arms...

Ah. She's still suspended by the woman.

Rayleigh, after saying a small sorry to Shakky, grabbed his shirt back and walked towards Chiko and the woman while putting on his shirt. He was finishing buttoning up his shirt when he stood in front of the two.

"You- you were helping Kuhat?" he asked, face to face with Chiko since the woman was still holding her up. Chiko mutely nodded. Then Chiko gasped when she felt the woman, apparently called Kuhat, put Chiko on her shoulder. Chiko felt the woman's shoulders move as she laughed.

"She really is Ray's lil bird, huh?" The woman laughed even more, making Chiko smile a bit, finding Kuhat's laugh contagious. Rayleigh bore a small smile himself and chuckled. To himself, he wondered why he could now sense Chiko and not moments prior. He'll figure it out later.

"Good to see you out of bed, Chiko-chan," he said to her. She felt the giddy excitement inside of her return, "Thank you Rayleigh-san," she said back.

"Alright lil bird, you wanna help me more or nah?" Kuhat asked, looking up at Chiko. Chiko hummed and looked down at Kuhat. "Can I help you more? Please?" Chiko doesn't know how she helped the first time around but she wanted to do it again. The woman grinned and grabbed Chiko again, so that now the child was sitting on both of her shoulders.

Kuhat saluted at Rayleigh playfully, "Alright! See you around Rayleigh-san!" and the two were now off. He heard a soft, 'bye Rayleigh-san' from Chiko. He could only watch the two walk off, a feeling he did not feel often settle in him.

He was glad Chiko was looking much better. Progress, he nodded, progress.

XXX

"Hey, Chiko-chan?" She looked to the left and saw Shakky walking in the medical bay. Kuhat and her had been intercepted by Crocus, saying that Chiko had to get her checkup and medicine now. Chiko had been a bit sad to leave her new friend, well, she hoped she could consider her as a friend. Crocus still had to get her medicine ready, so now Chiko was waiting on the bed.

"Yes?" Chiko responded, looking up at the black haired woman. Kuhat's taller than Shakky, with long black hair that reached her butt. But she was less modest than Shakky, as she wore a short skirt that showed off her long legs and also wore a tank top. She didn't have big boobs like Shakky though.

"Since you're feeling better, do you want to eat with Rayleigh-kun, me and Captain? Crocus and Kuhat-chan can be near too if you want."

Chiko blinked.

She hadn't seen Roger even since they met that first time. Which... well, it make sense. She had reacted horribly after she first met him. It's no wonder the captain kept his distance from her. But... with how she spent her day with Kuhat... she feels like it'll be fine. It is true she still has intrusive thoughts, but she managed to deal with it with Kuhat. The smallest things made her remember, but... it'll probably only get harder the longer she waits. So with a determined nod, she agreed.

"Yes please, sounds cool!" She nodded. Then she suddenly remembered what she talked about with Kuhat when they first met, "I'll get to ask Rayleigh-san why I'm a bird then." That was a genuine question that she wanted answered. Kuhat said something about a coohen but she wasn't sure what that meant. Shakky and Crocus shared a look before Shakky giggled.

"Yes, you should ask him."

XXX

Loud. It's loud here.

People were eating, drinking, talking and laughing all over the place. She could see Roget at the very end of the table. He was, obviously, at the end of the long table. To his right was Rayleigh and his left was empty.

She walked next to Shakky and behind her was Crocus, who snitched a beer from somewhere. Rayleigh noticed Shakky and Chiko walking over and smiled, waving. Chiko shyly waved back.

"You can sit next to Captain and Kuhat-chan, ok?" Shakky said to Chiko. Chiko blinked and saw that there was an empty space between Roger and Kuhat. And Kuhat finally seemed to see Chiko and grinned. "Lil bird! Brat, I saved you the best meat- you will be amazed! DAMN! If you're vegetarian you're gonna seriously make me cry."

Chiko snickered, quickly moving around and behind Roger and went to sit on the bench next to her new friend and Roger. Kuhat dumped a load of food on her plate, mostly meat and one leaf of salad.

"Actually, Kuhat-san, I'm vegan."

Chiko waited patiently as she stared at Kuhat for her reaction. Kuhat went from a smiling goodness to a pale, gaping and a horrified looking face. Chiko didn't notice that Rayleigh also seemed to widen his eyes.

So Chiko bit into the meat, "Nah I'm kidding."

Kuhat banged on the table with her fist, making Chiko flinch a bit but she couldn't help but let out a small grin at Kuhat's furious face. "Brat!" Interacting with Kuhat has been fun but she was always very physical. And while Chiko appreciated how Kuhat didn't seem to care about Chiko's condition, it was startling at times.

Chiko blinked, chewing on the meat. It tasted really good. She doesn't think she ever had meat like this before. She didn't realize a small radiant smile formed on her lips, waves of bliss rolling off her, making people who saw her snicker. A deep chuckle sounded on her right and she looked. Roger was looking at her, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Like the food, lil missy?"

She swallowed, eyes remaining on him.

Thinking about it, everyone kept saying good things about him. And now, he looked eerily similar to his future son and Monkey D. Luffy.

"It's amazing, I've never had anything like it before."

Rayleigh internally sighed with relief while Shakky giggled. Roger chuckled, "Well, dig in. We're not running out anytime soon!"

Chiko nodded but didn't eat more just yet, wondering how to go around this…

"Captain-san, I'd like to introduce myself again. May I?"

Roger's grin widened. "I don't see why not."

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. With a look of confidence hinted with fear, paranoia and distrust, she spoke.

"My name is Kitaimo Hachiko, it's a pleasure to meet you, Pirate King-san."

Roger chuckled.

"The name's Gol D. Roger, Hachiko-chan."

A look of determination overtook everything else.

"Chiko, please."

A satisfied grin grew on his face.

"Chiko-chan," his chuckle somehow made her feel happy, "The pleasure's all mine, lil missy."

Completely satisfied with the interaction, she bowed her head at him and then went back to eating. Kuhat sent a curious look to the kid next to her before stuffing her face again. It was the first time she sat so close to her captain, aside from the first day she joined.

"Ah, Chiko-chan," Shakky spoke up. Chiko looked up from her plate of food to the opposite side of the table, where Shakky sat next to Rayleigh. "Didn't you want to ask a question to Rayleigh-kun?"

Rayleigh brought his cup of red wine down and raised an eyebrow, "Oh?" he sent a curious look to the child in front of him. Chiko nodded. "Yeah! Why's everyone calling me lil bird? Or Ray's lil bird?" She looked at Kuhat, "Kuhat-san said something about-"

Suddenly a hand covered her mouth, making Chiko's heart bounce in absolute fear, until Kuhat's hilarious scared face appeared in front of her. "I said nothing." She looked at Chiko, and Chiko saw a face that was pissed scared. "I said nothing."

Chiko's eyes crinkled in amusement when the hand was finally removed from her face, but then looked back at Rayleigh. "Kuhat-san said nothing. But why the name?"

Rayleigh closed his eyes, as if thinking deeply about it. He soon opened his eyes again and was about to speak, but someone cut it.

"Cause Rayleigh-san was worried as sick as a mother hen about you!"

It was someone random from the large table and people all over the long table started laughing. Rayleigh let out a chuckle. A dark chuckle.

"Hiding in the crowd, are you, Benjamin?" Rayleigh asked, making one person choke on something on the dining table. Most probably this Benjamin. "Extra training for you for the next week."

Kuhat flinched next to Chiko, making Chiko look up at the older woman with a small raise of the eyebrow… and she saw the older woman silently pray for this Benjamin person. Is this 'extra training' really a bad thing? Chiko blinked and went back to eating, thinking about what that Benjamin person said. A mother hen? Worried?

So now she was staring at Rayleigh curiously who was smiling but had his eyes closed, not wanting to dwell in this discussion. So she continued staring at him as she ate, while he stayed still, patiently waiting for her curiosity to die down. But he was obviously underestimating a kid's curiosity.

And apparently Chiko was overestimating her stomach capacity because she dropped her fork to the plate to hiccup and put a hand to her mouth. Kuhat blinked, "You ok kid?"

Rayleigh peeked an eye open… and saw a familiar expression on Chiko's face. He cringed, knowing what's to come soon.

He vanished from his seat only to appear again next to Chiko with a bucket. He quickly pulled her hair back and gently pushed her face away from the table and basically shoved her face in the bucket as she puked.

"I told you. You shouldn't eat when you're full..." he told her, sighing.

She coughed, and pouted. "But-... it tasted so good..."

Once that session was done, and after giving Chiko glasses of water to clean her mouth, Rayleigh gave the soiled bucket to Kuhat who gagged and immediately walked out of the hall with the bucket. Rayleigh sat where Kuhat was and poured water in Chiko's glass and handed it to her. She accepted and drank it slowly, instantly feeling better.

Rayleigh dutifully ignored the stares he got from the table. His reaction had proved the exact words of Benjamin's claim.

It wasn't like any one of them were there when he picked her up from the auction house.

Rayleigh looked down at the frail girl in his arms. He could barely feel any sort of force coming from her. Her shivers had ceased, her body long lost the energy to do such a task. Her breathing was barely there, as well as her heart pulses.

So he was surprised when she put her small hand to his chest.

He noted her bone-like hand. Her wrist was so thin. Too thin. The shackle around her wrist could even be pried off her hands. But how could she, with no energy and filled with pain? He had already noted her infected hand and thought that she's had to get that amputated.

"Master… sama..." he heard her say. He frowned and wanted to tell her that she shouldn't speak.

"I'm… sorry… please… throw me away..."

Rayleigh went a bit quicker, but he couldn't move freely because that might just finish the child off.

"Is… is my death… more favorable than...my life…?"

He felt her try to grip his shirt, but she was far too weak to do such a feat.

"Otou-san..."

He had to hurry up. Why did Kichi always do things last minute?

"...why did you... throw me away…?"

Something pulled on his gut. Something that felt like a piece of hope shattered in his heart.

"I'm… sorry for existing..."

"If you're gonna throw it up, it won't taste good," he deadpanned. Chiko coughed again, making Rayleigh tense up a bit but then eased when she was fine. He noted how her wrists grew some more and how her cheeks didn't seem as hollow. Finally, some fat and muscles on her body. Her fingers were strong enough to hold objects and were fortunately not as thin and weak as when he first saw her.

"Noted," she responded, more quietly now.

"Come on Rayleigh, lil missy here is fine! A little puking never hurt anyone!" Roger laughed. Rayleigh sighed, keeping to himself how what Roger said was completely false, but nodded nonetheless, stood up and went to sit next to his captain again but a hand caught his wrist. He looked down and saw Chiko smile up at him. He was reminded of her shut eyes, weak, gray, dying.

"Thanks Rayleigh-san, I'll be more careful!"

He chuckled and nodded.

It felt good seeing that smile.

XXX

"The fuck kind of hair do you have?!"

Chiko shrugged.

"The messy kind."

"Yeah, no shit!"

"Sherlock."

"What? Sherlock- Oh my god, this is impossible."

Chiko was taking a shower with Kuhat and well... washing and brushing Chiko's hair proved to be hard.

"Whatever, I give up. Just have dreads." Kuhat said, leaving the tangled brush in Chiko's wet hair. Chiko brought her hands up to take the brush out but soon realized that it was stuck there. Seriously stuck. Huh.

"Well, I always wanted to be jamaican."

"Seriously, what the hell are you talking about- OH! I have an idea!"

Chiko turned around to face Kuhat, who pulled out a knife from god knows where. "Let's just cut it off!" Chiko took some strands from her hair… and thought why not. Her hair was already seriously disgusting and having short hair always meant less taking care of. Plus, it felt freer.

"Ok!"

It still took time to handle the mess and knots of the short hair afterwards. But hey, now a good few hours later they got to show off Chiko's new hair to Rayleigh and Shakky.

Rayleigh sighed while Shakky giggled. "You look very pretty with hair like that, Chiko-chan." Kuhat ran her hand through Chiko's hair and sighed blissfully. It was so floofy now, free of knots and such. The brown short hair ended by her neck, but it was curly in a way that made it impossible to tame. So the pieces of hair were sticking out everywhere. One would think it'd be filled with knots but both Kuhat and Chiko made sure that each knot was eliminated.

"It's short like yours, Shakky-san!"

Shakky giggled and ran her hand through Chiko's hair when Kuhat removed her hand. "It is. Although yours is-"

Shakky halted, running her hand though Chiko's hair again. Chiko liked the feeling of someone's hand running through her hair, so she wasn't complaining. "Oh my, you and Kuhat-chan have done a good job. This is the softest thing I've ever touched."

Chiko and Kuhat beamed at each other, their work finally receiving the true praise it deserved.

Shakky removed her hand then, making Chiko disappointed that it ended so quickly… but then Shakky put Rayleigh's hand on Chiko's head. He didn't complain and also ran his hand through her hair. Chiko closed her eyes in absolute bliss, inching closer to Rayleigh as he pondered at how having such soft hair was possible. It reminded him of the feathers from the house tall chicks him and Roger found in the New World. The ones that breathed fire, which made the feathers warm as well. Their feathers had been the softest thing he ever felt.

And yet, the girl's hair rivaled such feathers.

Both Shakky and Kuhat looked at Rayleigh as he was lost in thought, his hand petting and playing with Chiko's hair while Chiko stood still next to Rayleigh, smiling softly, almost looking like she would fall asleep soon.

Shakky giggled while Kuhat snickered. Mother hen at heart, they both thought.

XXX

"Hey Chiko-chan, Captain wants to talk to you. Alone. Would that be alright?" Rayleigh had asked. She was fishing with Kuhat and a few others from the crew.

It's been a month since Rayleigh had saved her and she was almost completely physically healed. She blinked. Roger and her usually only talked during dinner or when he was on deck. "Yeah, that's fine. Where is he?"

Ever since she healed up psychologically, which was still a thing in progress, she slowly grew onto the crew's heart. Ray's lil bird. Always seen running around, sometimes up to mischievous things with Kuhat or simply tailing Rayleigh. She always tried to help around, which Rayleigh had told her she really didn't need to do because well, she was still healing up and he really did not want all his (and of course her) progress wasted.

Until Shakky said that Kuhat would literally slap Chiko's back sometimes and then Rayleigh used conqueror haki on Kuhat and she had a bad headache for the rest of the day but that's it. Now Rayleigh sometimes let Chiko help around the ship. Cleaning the deck, helping the cook, carrying whatever boxes that she could carry. Muscles slowly started to grow on her.

"In his office."

Chiko nodded, and gave her fishing rod to Kuhat who was catching a fish and yelled at Chiko for distracting her. "Ok! See you later!" And started to jog off to the captain's office. Rayleigh looked at her retreating form. They would probably be talking about what him and Roger discussed the other day.

It's for the best.

Chiko thought back at all this time she's spent on the ship. Things have been going so... well lately. Intrusive thoughts grew more scarce by the day as she gained confidence, something Kuhat really helped her out with. New memories fills her mind and keeps her away from the old ones. And she's learning so many new things. How ships work, the New World. They were now in Grand Line, that's what Rayleigh told her when a group of gigantic dolphins almost broke the ship if it weren't for Shakky. Chiko had never known that Shakky was this strong and had flooded Shakky with questions after the older woman had stepped back onto the ship, having finished off the sea mammal.

Shakky had hidden her amused smile when she spotted Rayleigh. His blinked in confusion at them both, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, he seemed to be a bit at a loss that his little bird had just walked to another person. So of course he had to get her attention back by saying something extravagant about the Grand Line. Chiko had turned around and was by Rayleigh's side in a second, asking questions about the Grand Line while a satisfied grin had itched on his lips. Shakky had sighed fondly at her husband and went back to work.

Chiko knocked on the door of Roger's office. "Come in, come in," she heard and opened the door. There sat Roger, in front of a desk that had a map, bounty papers, knives and coins all over the place. Chiko couldn't help but also look around. It looked like a true pirate's den, with treasures everywhere, as well as papers and whatever else.

"Ah, lil missy. Sit down, we need to have a chat."

This sounded familiar to when her parents brought the topic of intercourse and she severely hoped that Roger would not be doing that.

Roger snickered when she sat down and looked at him curiously.

"Do you know the power, 'Voice of All Things'?" he asked her, putting his feet on his desk and intertwined his fingers over his stomach. It sounded familiar, Chiko thought. A power that only Gol D. Roger has in the One Piece universe, or at least that's from what she knew from the series she didn't finish. If she remembered correctly, that is how he was able to 'read' Robin's special Poneglyphs rocks.

But she's not supposed to know that. So she shrugged.

"You can listen to stuff?"

He chuckled, "In a way yes. And lil missy, I understand why you're doing it. But not here. I can hear your lies."

At that, she tensed up. He could hear her lies? What does that even mean?

"What's your name, lil missy?"

She frowned, confused. "Kitaimo Hachiko."

He then shook his head.

"Your first name."

Her… first name…? It's Hachiko...or…

She tensed up and stood up making the chair skid backwards. Her eyes widened while her pupils narrowed. He waited patiently for her answer, but she could tell he was looking through her.

What terrifying powers he possesses.

"...Ellie Smith."

Roger grinned.

"Ellie Smith," he tried, "You are a very special case."

She frowned. Bringing the chair a bit forwards, she sat back down but more on edge now. "I can hear a lot of things. And these things tell me this isn't your first voyage."

What an overpowered ability. Is it a devil fruit or like haki? Perhaps it's like observational haki.

"...Yes. I've been reborn."

He hummed, "Interesting… not so lucky the second time, huh?" he said, chuckling solemnly.

Yep, not so lucky. "It has its ups and downs," she admits.

He nods and then leans forwards, grinning.

"So, tell me. Is it true that my son is going to wreck the whole world in the future?"

XXX

Rayleigh sighed as he stood in front of his captain's door. Him and the kid had been talking for hours now, and neither came to dinner. Why the hell were they taking so long? Didn't the captain know that Chiko was still recovering? He knocked on the door and heard a loud 'come in'.

He opened the door and blinked when he saw their faces.

Both of them were grinning. Large idiotic smiles splattered on their face. And now they were looking at him.

"Rayleigh-san! Hi!"

He chuckled at the girl. "Hello Chiko-chan. You and Captain didn't come to dinner, the crew's a bit worried."

Chiko and Roger blinked, both looked out of the window at the same time. "Oh wow, I didn't realize," Chiko mumbled. Roger laughed, stood and grabbed Chiko to put her on his shoulders. "C'mon missy, or Rayleigh's gonna get mad." Chiko giggled, putting her hand in his hat free hair. "Ok! Let's go!"

The two walked out, leaving Rayleigh somewhat dumbfounded in his captain's office… since when did those two get so close?

XXX

Chiko had told him what she knew of Luffy's adventure as well as Ace's future. She left out Ace's name since Roger had not thought of a name for his future kid with Rouge. Seems like his power made him hear things, but only somewhat vaguely. So he couldn't 'listen' the name Ace from her.

But she still told him how Garp would stay true to his word and Ace would grow to be a great pirate. Stories of him and Luffy and Sabo made Roger laugh and point out how that's just like him. Chiko could feel how proud he felt about his unborn son.

Days passed and she would sometimes spend them with Roger, the two exchanging stories.

But one night stood out.

"Chiko," he said. Chiko blinked, never having heard him use her name like that before.

"I have a favor."

Chiko already sensed where this was going. And she already accepted. But she waited for him to voice it out. Her resolve seemed to please Roger nonetheless because he chuckled.

"Look over my son when I pass."

She nodded. This man saved her life. And she loved Ace to bits.

"Of course."

She would tell Ace of how proud his father is. And the adventures they went on. She would make sure Ace grew up with the love he deserved.

XXX

"Huh? Mop head, who?" she asked, biting into the fries on her table. Roger laughed, slamming his beer down. "That brat Shanks and Buggy!" he said. Recognition filled Chiko. They were still supposed to be on Roger's crew? She had told Roger about them and he laughed when he heard Shanks would become strong. As if he borderline didn't believe it. She knew better. Roger isn't wearing his straw hat anymore, which means it sat on someone else's head.

"I threw them on an island so they'd get stronger. They better be stronger or I'm throwing them in the New World next time."

She understood why him and Garp were friends.

"Yeah… Paradise might not be enough," Rayleigh noted. She deadpanned at them. Are they serious? Do they seriously want to kill some kids? Roger shrugged. "We'll see."

Monsters, the both of them.

XXX

"Rayleigh-san?"

He hummed as he looked at the map, behind the wheel.

"This isn't normal."

Normal? Did she mean the weather? Because it was raining trees ten minutes ago and that wasn't normal either. But that was ten minutes ago. So he looked down from his map, to her.

"What-"

He stopped himself when he saw her hand.

There was a gash on the palm of her hands. Blood was flowing out extremely fast.

"I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark..."

He immediately dropped the map, "Shakky, wheel! Crocus, Chiko got hurt again!" He yelled, grabbing Chiko quickly but gently and immediately headed to the medical bay.

After Crocus bandaged her up, Rayleigh asked where she got the knife and she told him that if she wanted to not be a nuisance, she had to know how to fight. Not seeing a flaw in her logic, he told her he'd get a couple of people to teach her. She internally praised herself at moving the conversation to her favor so she didn't have to rat out Kuhat, who gave her the knife. Until Rayleigh asked if Kuhat was the one to give Chiko the knife. She had to tell the truth.

XXX

Chiko gasped, sitting up immediately, breathing heavily. Her good hand reached for her newly damaged hand.

Memories.

Fat man.

She clenched her eyes.

Otou-san.

Oka-san.

She gritted her teeth.

Forget. Forget it all. Forget, forget, FORGET!

The silence of the night went unknown to her as thoughts buzzed in her head. Illogical thoughts. Wound? On hand? From the fat man. No? From when? Wound on ankle? Wound from drugs? Yes. Drugs. From Otou-san. He wants money? Do I have money? They need money. I need to get them money. But- I don't- do I have money.

Chiko patted her body.

No money. No money... no goods. No money, no drugs? Isn't that good? Isn't that what they wanted? So why did fat man still catch her? Why did he kill that servant? Was she next? Almost, right. The fat man's nephew almost caught her. He played with her. And he- he-

She looked at her good hand and saw a deep scar.

He didn't want her dead, he wanted her to suffer.

Because she's useless.

A burden.

Nothing.

Unimportant.

A waste of space.

Garbage-

"Chiko-chan?"

She flinched and looked to the left quickly. She saw a face. A familiar face. Rayleigh. Memories flood in. Happy ones. Rayleigh. Shakky. Kuhat. Captain Roger. Crocus. The crew. The ship. She's fine now.

"I-I..."

She could hear the silence of the night once more. The waves gently hit the ship and rocking it ever so slightly. She could smell the saltiness of the ocean and then the typical smell of the medical bay. She could feel the cool air against her skin and the covers over her toes.

She blinked a few times. She doesn't even know what to say. She doesn't even know what happened. She put her hand to her forehead and looked at the covers, trying to breathe normally. That was... that was horrible. It was like she was in a loop. An illogical loop. Would she have stayed like that? And would it have gotten progressively worse if Rayleigh hadn't shown up?

She leaves the thought at that.

"Are you alright? Do you want me to get Crocus?"

Would she be...? She doesn't know... but... well, actually...

She gulped down the emotions she felt prior as best as she could, "I'm... fine now... but, would it be alright if you stay for a few more minutes? Please?"

Rayleigh's presence always seemed to calm her. He had an overwhelming feeling of warmth and protectiveness around him and she instinctively knew she'd be safe from anything if he's close by.

"Sure."

She smiled, the ache in her heart and hand already lessening.

She'll think about this problem in the morning.

XXX

It's been a month and a half since Rayleigh saved her, and they're finally on an island. Ever since that traumatizing night event a few weeks ago, where she concluded was all hyperventilating, overthinking and dreaming at the same time, she decided that no more. If she pushed the memories as deep and far away as possible, it would be good enough. 'Facing them' or whatnot seemed stupid and she did not want to go through that pain all over again. No, not remembering and nothing thinking about it seemed like the best path of action. And... well, ever since then, it's been working perfectly.

Chiko looked up at Shakky, both of them standing by the ramp that extended to the port of this island.

"Alright, I'll go find Shanks and Buggy," Rayleigh had said before jumping off the ship and went off to find the boys. Shakky and her were walking around the port village. They had to stock up on goods, cause they were running a bit low on them. While more weight lifting people stocked up the goods, like Kuhat, Shakky dragged Chiko off to find better clothes.

Chiko had thanked Shakky, who smiled and patted Chiko's messy but so incredibly soft hair. "No problem, Chiko-chan."

Soon the sun slept and a cool darkness fell over the island. Shakky and Chiko were walking back to the ship, content with what they got. Chiko had a bundle of clothes in her arms and a few extra materials while Shakky held a bag of a couple of whiskey bottles, packs of cigarettes and other goodies. At one point, they even went to a bar and while Chiko drank some apple juice, Shakky got some information about something.

Overall, both girls were satisfied with their land trip.

It also felt good to be on land. But, the ship was also great.

When she and Shakky were back on board, they had already eaten dinner together, Rayleigh noticed them. He walked over to Shakky. "They're in one piece, but barely. Crocus set them in the bay, they'll probably be sleeping for some time," he told, making her nod. "You mean Shanks and Buggy?" Chiko asked, making Rayleigh look down at her and pat her head. "Yeah. You can see them if you want, just don't wake them up."

She nodded and then ran off to where she slept every night. Slowly opening the door, she crept in. She didn't see anyone but the two sleeping boys in the different beds. She tiptoed to the closest one and saw the blue hair and red nose. She grinned. Buggy the Clown. Essentially comic relief. But an important person nonetheless.

He had his mouth wide open as he slept, and she could see how his upper body was bandaged fully. So they were really surviving out there, huh?

But now she was even more curious to see the other one.

So she tiptoed to the other bed, the one that was at the feet of her own bed. There, laid Shanks. His Straw Hat was on the chair next to his bed. Chiko blinked. Even so young, he's good looking. His sleeping position was similar to Buggy's sprawled form. She let a giggle escape. Some of his hair was messily over his closed eyes, so she brushed her fingers over him and swept them to the side.

His hair really is a beautiful shade of red. None that she had ever seen before.

Then Shanks grumbled in his sleep, making her bow next to the bed, the only thing peaking were her fingers. When she heard him no more, she looked back up and saw he was still asleep. She grinned and laid her head on his mattress, thinking.

They looked older than her, by three years maybe. They sure looked stronger than her. If fighting alone in the Grand Line said anything at least. One of the Four Emperors. The boy in front of her will shake the world in more than one way. How incredible.

She didn't realize her eyelids were pulled closed as she dwelled in her thoughts, and soon she fell asleep, her arms and head resting by Shank.

XXX

She blushes furiously, "I do not!" she growled at Kuhat, who laughed coyly. The tall woman put her two hands flat on each other and then put them beside her head, mimicking to be asleep. "Oh Shanks, I love you~" she said in a squeaky voice, impersonating Chiko.

Chiko gaped, getting more and more tense as her face got redder.

"I did not ever say that!" Chiko yelled, shaking her head, "And I do not sound like that!"

Kuhat continued laughing, even started wheezing at how much she was laughing. Passing crewmates commented at how stupid Kuhat looked while others snickered with Kuhat.

"Yeah, yeah, kid, I saw you sleeping next to him. Don't even try to hide it," Kuhat grinned teasingly at the child. Chiko didn't know why she was getting so worked up. Maybe she does have a crush on Shanks? Then she shook her head furiously, no! She's an adult for god's sake- well, as an adult, he's extremely handsome. With a great personality. Strong- and now she's blushing again.

Kuhat laughed even harder, having to hold her sides.

"Stop teasing Chiko-chan, Kuhat," she felt a familiar large hand on her head and she grinned and looked up at Rayleigh. "Thank you Rayleigh-san," she whispered, making him chuckle and ruffled her messy soft hair.

"Argh, you're no fun Ray-san!" Kuhat groaned, only for a mischievous gleam set in her eyes. "It's not my fault if lil bird has a crush!"

"Kuhat-san! I do not!" Chiko countered, stomping the ground one with her feet, feeling the red returning to her face. Rayleigh chuckled, "If Chiko-chan says she doesn't, then she doesn't," Rayleigh says, siding with Chiko, making Chiko grin and Kuhat roll her eyes. "You say that cause you didn't see her sleep with Shanks-boy."

Chiko gaped, what a horribly put sentence. "Kuhat-san, shut up! I did not do that!" she whispered loudly, making Kuhat howl out of laughter again. She then felt that Rayleigh had stopped petting her head and looked up curiously. And cringed when she saw that despite him smiling, his face darkened considerably. Oh no, what did Kuhat do.

"Chiko-chan?" she heard Rayleigh say. Chiko gulped, turning around so she could face him properly. His eyes were closed as he smiled. "You slept on the same bed as mop head?" She quickly concluded that mop head is Shanks' nickname, much like how hers is Ray's lil bird. She likes her nickname much more.

"Not… quite?"

She was sure she had fallen asleep on the ground next to him. But when she was woken up by a wheezing Kuhat, she was face to face with a sleeping Shanks, in his bed, as he used her as a sort of cuddly toy. She was also drooled on. Seriously gross.

"I'm telling Captain that mop head needs more training in the New World. Now." Rayleigh announced, making Chiko gape and hold Rayleigh's wrist so he'd stop walking towards Roger. But she had no strength whatsoever, so he easily dragged her as he walked. "Noo, Rayleigh-san! Please don't do that to Shanks-kun-"

He turned around, "Shanks-kun?" he asked, still smiling but his tone was not joyful at all. She gulped. "Don't please! He's still hurt! I'm sure it's just Kuhat-san pranking me!" Rayleigh crouched down in front of Chiko, who had her eyebrows furrowed, her face was still tinted red, making her cutely embarrassed.

"...Fine."

She sighed in relief.

"On one condition."

Chiko nodded, ready for any condition.

"Boys are dangerous. Always be careful around them. You promise me that?"

Chiko blinked. That seemed… reasonable, she supposed. Why was he reacting like that?

"But what about you and Captain-san?"

"It's fine if you know them and trust them," he responds.

Chiko tried to understand his behavior. Until the answer was right under her nose this whole time. Ray's lil bird. Rayleigh being a mother hen. That meant being overprotective. Rayleigh cares about her so much that he's warning her about boys…? Like Shanks…?

Another red tint appeared on her cheeks.

"I promise Rayleigh-san."

He stayed silent for another moment, before chuckling and patting her head. "Good."

Her heart fluttered. Somehow... the warm, familiar feelings inside her multiplied and she couldn't help but smile at the man. He's... he's like the father she wanted.

Of course she would never admit that, but she had the feeling that Rayleigh shared a feeling that's almost mutual.

XXX

"Hmn? I'm busy, what do you want?" Kuhat had to fix a crack somewhere on the ship, cause some idiot pirates tried to overthrow them. She had messed up and exploded a bomb too close to the ship. And now she had to fix it with the shipwright.

Chiko pulled out an orange bracelet, "I made you this! It's a friendship bracelet!"

Kuhat blinked and put the crate she was carrying down. Sitting down on the crate, she looked at what Chiko made. An orange, woven bracelet. It looked surprisingly sturdy. "Uh..." Kuhat didn't know how to respond. Chiko tilted her head, "If you want, I can put it on you…. Or..." then Chiko visibly deflated, inching the bracelet closer to her body and put on a visibly fake and sad smile, "If you don't want it, it's also fine!"

Kuhat raised an eyebrow at her, but felt her heart swell with warmth.

"The hell are you talking about? Come on, put it on! I also really like orange!" Kuhat couldn't care less about the different colors, but she supposes that now orange is her favorite color. Chiko beamed, "Great! I think orange suits you as well! That's why I chose it for you!"

Kuhat showed Chiko her non-dominant wrist and Chiko tied the bracelet around it, making sure it wasn't too loose or too tight. "What brought this idea?" Kuhat wondered out loud. To which Chiko grinned at. "Well, Captain told me I won't be here forever… so I made myself a bracelet," she showed Kuhat her own white bracelet, which stood out from her now pretty tanned skin, "to remind me of everyone on this crew! Since it's white, it's basically like having all colors! That's why I'm giving you a colored bracelet!"

Unshed tears filled Kuhat's eyes and she brought Chiko into her arms, embracing the child tightly. "This is… the best gift I've ever received," Kuhat said, in Chiko's hair. Chiko wanted to respond, but it was getting hard to breathe since she was being squeezed. "...Ku-Kuhat-s-san..."

Kuhat let her go after a few more seconds and said to Chiko she definitely wasn't crying. The child grinned at her and then set out to find the four other people.

Soon, she found Crocus playing cards with other crewmates.

"Crocus-san, guess what!" she said, seeing that he had a bad hand anyways. He grumbled and set his cards down. "You're hurt?"

Chiko pouted, "No. Something more important!"

He looked up, thinking of something more important.

"Your crush on Shan-"

"No! Not that! And that is not true either!"

The other crewmates chuckled while Crocus settled with a smirk. "What then?"

She pulled out a green bracelet. "I made you a friendship bracelet! I have one as well, so that when I leave, I'm still a bit here!"

Crocus blinked and looked blankly at the bracelet. He only mutely nodded as he handed his wrist over. Chiko happily put on the green bracelet, securing that it wasn't too right or loose. Then, she put her own white bracelet next to his, and grinned.

"Hooked! Now whether you like or not, I'm with you for the rest of your life!"

He mutely ruffled her hair and she grinned, happy that he accepted and went off to find the remaining people. She didn't hear the other people who were playing cards with Crocus starting to tease Crocus of crying.

Soon, she saw both Shakky and Roger talk to each other by the wheel. Probably over the pirates they recently fought. Jackpot.

"Shakky-san, Captain-san!" She jogged on over. The two glanced at Chiko, exchanging another few words before giving their attention to the girl. "What's got you running all over the ship, missy?" Roger asked, a grin on his face.

She pulled out two bracelets, one purple, the other yellow.

"I made you two friendship bracelets!" She paused for a moment before looking at Roger. "It's… not that pretty though, so I don't know if you'd want to wear it, being Pirate King and all."

Roger started laughing.

"Treasure comes in all sorts of shapes and forms, missy."

At that, Chiko grinned.

She put the bracelets on them and then nodded, satisfied. "Is this the metallic wool we've gotten together?" Shakky asked, making Chiko nod. "Yep!" On the one island that Chiko went on with Shakky, they all specialized in such special wool. It was from a metallic sheep, the vendor's mouth, not hers, and it was basically wool but much stronger. And it didn't get soaked or dirty much, which was a huge plus in Chiko's book.

"Thank you very much, Chiko-chan," Shakky said, making Chiko grin and nod, showing her own white bracelet. "No problem, now we're all united!"

A hand was pressed on her head and she yelped when she felt Roger ruffle her hair much harsher than it needed to be. "Missy is getting sentimental! It's putting me in a fishing mood. Come on missy, let's catch some fish."

Chiko hummed. She still had to give the last one to Rayleigh… and maybe Shanks. Oh well, she could find them later. "Ok!" Roger barked out an order for someone to get two fishing poles for them and soon her and Roger were sitting on the railing, fishing.

"I thought yellow would be a nice color, cause of your straw hat," Chiko said when it was just them. There were still people outside, but they wouldn't hear what she said. Roger chuckled, looking at the basic bracelet Chiko made. "This is your way of closure and saying goodbye," he stated, because he knows he hit the mark.

She simply nodded solemnly. She'll have to leave one day, and that day is approaching. So she was getting ready for what would ultimately happen.

She felt Roger ruffle her hair again, but more gently this time.

"We won't forget you. Your time here may have been short, but that does not make it any less precious."

She felt the tears fill her eyes.

It felt so nice to be in this crew, with them. It was filled with warmth. Different from her family's but it… it was still so nice. Everyone was nice and treated her well. Of course some crew members didn't want to be around her, but that was just fair and more realistic in Chiko's book, which made things even better.

Things weren't perfect, which is exactly why it made everything perfect.

"I'm going to miss this… and you as well..." she muttered. Roger let out a low hum.

"It shows that you care." With his free hand, he poked where her heart is. "That's what matters."

She nodded.

"And we got your damned bracelet now, and this thing is tough, so it'll probably come with me in the after life."

She giggled at that.

"So don't worry, lil missy."

She grinned and leaned into Roger's body, who then put his arm around her much smaller body. There was a comfortable silence… until she almost fell into the ocean because something pulled hard on her fishing rod.

"AH! CAPTAIN-SAN, HELP!"

As if he wasn't already, he held her ankles as she held onto the fishing pole.

"HOLD IT! This is gonna be a good one!"

During dinner, they had the fish that Chiko caught. It ended up being a huge ass salmon. And when she means huge, she means a big bus huge. What the fuck is wrong with this world.

"It felt like my arms were gonna get ripped off," Chiko mumbled, eating the salmon next to Roger, who laughed. "Worth it."

She snorted at his response and continued eating. Then she blinked, looking in front of her. Rayleigh wasn't there. "Shakky-san?" she asked, making Shakky look up from her meal. "Yes?"

"Where's Rayleigh-san?"

"Hm… I think in his room. He's been there all day, looking at maps."

Well that's not good, he's not eating. Hopefully he'll come soon. As an in case, Chiko put aside a plate with some of the best food that was served.

Which proved to be a good decision, because he never showed up. She would usually help clean up, but she eyed the plate of food she kept for Rayleigh nervously. "Did you keep this plate for Rayleigh-kun?" she heard Shakky ask to her left. Chiko nodded, picking up the plate.

"Let's go together, I need to give him something," she said. Chiko nodded again and went to walk to Rayleigh's room alongside Shakky. Since he's the first mate, he was allowed to have his own room. Soon, Shakky knocked on the door gently and let herself in. Chiko tailed behind her quietly.

She saw Rayleigh stroking his beard while looking at a map on his desk.

"Rayleigh-kun, you missed dinner. Chiko-chan got you some food," Shakky said. Chiko went up to Rayleigh, who finally looked up. "Ah, thank you." Chiko grinned, "No problem!"

Then she tilted her head, "Rayleigh-san, you seem busy. Are you alright?" Shakky went up to Rayleigh's side and handed him an envelope. He took it wordlessly, nodding in thanks. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit of work," he reassured Chiko. Then something seemed to catch his eyes.

"Shakky? Is that some new jewelry?" he asked, grabbing Shakky's hand to see her new purple bracelet. Chiko blinked, ah, right! Shakky smiled, "Yep, Chiko-chan gave it to me. It's a friendship bracelet she made."

Rayleigh nodded slowly, a small frown tugging down on his lips as he felt a bit disappointed and sad that he didn't get one-

"Rayleigh-san, here's yours!"

-and the feeling was immediately replaced with happiness. Shakky shook her head fondly in exasperation, the smile growing on her face and patted her lover's shoulder, and with a small wave to Chiko, walked out of the room.

Chiko walked around his desk and showed him the light blue bracelet. "I originally thought having a color like silver would be better because of your name," she admitted as she put the bracelet around his wrist, "but silver isn't part of the light spectrum I think, so light blue seemed to be the best solution!"

Tying it securely, she put her own bracelet next to the one she just gave him, and then looked up at him. "So that a part of us is always close, no matter the actual distance!" She grinned, which made Rayleigh chuckle. "You thought about this a lot, didn't you?"

Chiko nodded and touched her own bracelet.

"I'm… I'm going to miss you, and the others… so, I wanted to do this before I leave." She breathed in deeply, keeping the tears at bay. "I don't want to leave, but I can't stay here… so, I made this, so I won't ever forget you… and it's selfish… but..."

She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears, "I also hope you don't forget me either."

Rayleigh gave her a smile and then settled a hand on her head.

"It'd be a crime if I were to forget my lil bird."

She giggled and couldn't help but feel warm and giddy and happy. All happy things nestled in her and made her so happy to be alive.

"You're a pirate! You break crimes!"

He chuckled.

"Then I won't ever break that one."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

XXX

She made up her mind.

"Yeah, I want to be a marine when I grow up."

She was sitting by the table, playing poker with Crocus, Kuhat and another crewmate. Shakky was going around the deck, serving drinks to members that were off duty at the moment. Roger was fishing while Rayleigh was chatting with him about how Shanks and Buggy were taking some time to make up.

Anyways, her words made a few people trip up.

Shakky almost tripped and spilled drinks on the tray she was carrying, but then kept her balance. Roger scoffed while Rayleigh raised an eyebrow at Chiko, amused. The people at the table looked at her with stupefied looks on their faces.

"HAH?!" Kuhat yelled, feeling betrayed. But Chiko didn't blink as she signaled she was still in the game, putting in grapes next the stack of money. That was her money, fruits. An orange and a banana was also there.

"But-but marines! They suck!"

Chiko pouted, "That's not true, they save people. I wanna save people."

That wasn't the full reason. She felt like Rayleigh and Shakky understood what she actually meant. And she knew Roger knew exactly what she meant.

"But- then- you wanna capture us?!"

Chiko hummed, thinking. True, if she became a marine, she'd have to catch all pirates… hmn, she didn't want that.

"Nah, I'll catch people that I wanna catch. If you do something bad, I'll catch you."

Kuhat seemed terribly conflicted.

"B-but, marines are corrupt! They're bad! Pirates are good! You should be a pirate! You can travel the seas and be free! You're stuck when you're marine!"

It's true, many marines are corrupt and some do worse things than pirates. And most literally no one could do that, no one can 'fix' the marines, but the marines themselves. Pirates can't fix the marines and the World Government sure as hell can't either. No, marines themselves will change their bad counterparts and while doing so, help civilians. Besides, while she liked the freedom pirates have, she... well, she liked order. Being free with no set goal makes her paranoid. She had to have a goal and being a marine would be the only way that could have one, certainly not piracy.

Becoming a revolutionary also came to mind. It sure aligned with her goals. Making sure marines improve and protecting civilians. However they had a clear objective. Overthrowing the World Government. Or something like that, Chiko wasn't sure. And the World Government is essentially what drives her goal. It's a bit... like a paradox. If she becomes a marine, she works under the World Government. But she wants to make sure children or people don't end up as a slave like her, which is what the World Nobles from the World Government supports. It almost sounds counter productive, essentially working under people that she wants removed.

In the end, she ended the thought process, the 'plan' was: become a marine and who knows, maybe become a revolutionary if needed. Because, first and foremost, she wanted to protect civilians. To make sure children do not end up in the same household as her. Becoming a revolutionary is all good but it has its limits. Marines are everyone around the world, which means information about civilians being harmed goes through the marines almost directly, unlike the revolutionaries. But it is without a doubt that their intel gathering is also good.

And not being chased by people also sounded nice. Something marines don't usually have to worry about.

As a marine, she could help civilians, protect them. She could influence other marines to become better and catch the corrupt ones. This felt like the right decision and she was sticking with it.

"I still wanna be a marine."

Kuhat deflated, passing her turn in poker.

"Don't worry, I won't capture you… or anyone in the crew. Or anyone I like. I might capture you if you keep on being annoying."

Crocus finally recovered from the shock and sighed fondly at the girl next to him. "As if you can catch me, lil bird," Kuhat scoffed. Chiko locked eyes with Kuhat. And then jumped on her seat and launched herself towards Kuhat. Kuhat yelped, immediately standing up and avoiding the jump attack from Chiko. Chiko rolled on the ground on the opposite side, went on her knees to regain her balance, took a bit of time to recollect herself, and then ran towards Kuhat. Kuhat dodged the assault again, "Hah! As if!"

People who saw the exchange bore smiles on their faces.

* * *

**And that is chapter 5 done! A lot longer than planned lol**

**Just some interactions with Chiko and some fluff, because... ahh i love it. **

**Thank you **_Twelveplusone _**for you lovely reviews, I'm glad you like the story so far!**

**Thank you **_Xion The XIV _**also for your review. Hmmn, well I hope this chapter cleared some stuff up! And about her parents, I feel the same way. But Chiko, while she is angry, she is more heartbroken than angry. She'd rather forget. Which, honestly, isn't a very good coping mechanism. **

**Review are super appreciated. Hope you enjoyed xxx**

**2020/3/27 - Edited, fixed some grammar ****issues**


	6. Goodbye and Hello

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Goodbye and Hello**

* * *

Marine ships grew closer. The salty winds were starting to pick up, Chiko could faintly tell that a storm would be arriving soon, even if right now the skies were blue and the sun was shining with all it's might. Roger noted how it was his rival's ship that was approaching them and Chiko knew that her adventure on this wonderful ship was coming to an end.

She stood by the railing of the front of the ship, by Roger, and looked up at him. "So… how am I gonna get there?" she asked him, who didn't seem to worry a single bit that an enemy ship was approaching them extremely fast, with seemingly full intent to fight. They had already discussed this situation. Once Roger's rival would arrive… she would leave. The captain smirked, as if she reminded him of a most brilliant idea.

"I have a plan," was the only thing he responded with. She shrugged, leaving it to him. He seemed confident with his idea.

"Say your goodbyes, missy." She glanced back up at him as he stayed looking at the marine ship.

So soon…

Chiko turned around and faced the crew. Some of them were there- well, perhaps most of them? She wouldn't know, but many were there. And for those that were present, all their eyes were planted on her. So they all heard the news about her leaving when Garp would pay them a visit, huh…?

She inhaled softly… and then bowed deeply at all of them.

"Thank you for taking care of me! I have been so incredibly happy here and it's all because of you! Thank you so much! I hope the seas treat you all well!"

A wave of shouts came from the crew. All were words that made her eyes start to water. How she should stop being so humble and to 'pirate up' or 'man up' even if right afterwards they started shouting that she should visit them once she's a marine and a -a flustered blush bloomed- beautiful lady. She giggled and stood back up again, looking at the crew that healed her in more than one way. She considered this crew her new family, her special people, and yet she was leaving.

She knew it would be very unlikely that she'd meet the crew, as they are now, ever again. And it broke her heart. But she smiled, because despite the sadness growing in her, she couldn't ignore the happiness that surrounded her and that filled her for all these weeks. So with a grin, she nodded at all of them.

"Captain-san," she uttered more quietly and turned towards Roger and bowed deeply, "thank you for letting me stay on your ship. I owe you so much, I wish you the best of the best. Not that you'll need it I think, but still."

Roger chuckled, his wise eyes glazing over her form. He heard her, her sadness and her happiness. He somehow knows that despite this woman not coming from anywhere on his oceans, she will shake it up in the right direction. "Just remember my favor and I'll be the one to need to repay you tenfold. Now don't bow, we're the same age."

She laughed softly.

"Finish it up, we don't have much time," he said, making her nod.

She once again turned towards the crew… and looked more specifically towards Rayleigh. Taking a few steps towards him, he smiled down at her. "Look at that, the lil bird's finally leaving the nest, hm?" Chiko grinned up at the man. So the nickname finally grew on him? She nodded, "Yep! But it won't be the last time you'll be seeing her!" She showed him the white bracelet hanging on her wrists, identical to the one Rayleigh was wearing. A promise of return.

She had the urge to bow… but that felt… too distant.

So she immediately closed the gap between the two, wrapping her arms around his torso in an embrace.

"Thank you so much Rayleigh-san," she whimpered, closing her eyes. She didn't want to leave with tears falling down. She felt his chest rumble, a sign he was chuckling. "It was my utmost pleasure," he whispered, patting her soft yet still incredibly messy hair. He had the feeling it'd be the last time until a very long time that he'll be able to do that. They stayed like that for a few more moments, until a canon ball thrust itself next to the ship.

A small reminder that they probably shouldn't carry on for too long.

Chiko let go and looked up at Rayleigh.

They smiled at each other.

So she took a few steps back, trying to ink what she saw in her mind. Her family. The crew. Rayleigh. She would never forget them.

Then she swiftly turned around, knowing that if she lingered or turned around now, waterfalls would start falling from her eyes. Standing next to Roger, she gulped. "So?" she asked, wondering how she'd meet the famous Garp that Roger sometimes told stories about.

"You got a strong shirt on your back?"

Chiko blinked, she thinks so. But what did that have to do with anyth-

He grabbed the back of her shirt, making her leave the ground. Her feet and legs dangled in the air and he brought her up to his face so she faced him. He was grinning, probably thinking he was a genius. Chiko was still piecing together what was happening. "I have a good aim, don't worry missy," he says. She slowly understood what he implied. Her eyes narrowed. "Are you serious?"

He shrugged, "I don't usually miss. Brace yourself."

And with no sort of warning, he pulled his arm back and before Chiko knew it, she was hurled in the air over to another ship. Air thrashed all around. The smell of salt and the ocean overwhelmed her nose. She saw the blue of the waves- then the sky- then the waves- now her head was starting to ache- as well as her stomach- and she wanted to scream but-

Ah, strong arms caught her.

"Wh-what the, this isn't a cannonball!"

She looked up and saw a younger Garp than what she had envisioned. She grinned. "Yeah! I'm not a cannonball, I'm Chiko!"

XXX

It was a short battle because Garp didn't expect to have a girl thrown from his rival's ship and into his arms. They retreated after they also realized that Roger had his explosives recharged. They profusely showed that off this time around. The explosives master appeared to be in a bad mood today…

"Who are you, brat?" Garp asked the kid that was now munching on a cookie because she had told a marine cadet she was hungry. She was seated on the large marine ship railing. If she really were that dedicated in observing her surroundings, she would probably have compared Roger's ship more accurately with this one, but she wasn't that dedicated. They looked to be about the same size. But more white here. And blue. And more formal. And less alcohol. And less shouting. And less knives. (And less Rayleigh…) But somehow this place seemed just as clean as Roger's ship.

Chiko hummed and swung her feet back and forth, also careful to not lose her balance. Something that Garp didn't seem worried about. The first time Chiko tried this on Roger's ship, Rayleigh found her and scolded her. Ten minutes later Kuhat had accidentally thrown Chiko off the ship (yeah, Chiko isn't quite sure either how she got accidentally thrown off board) and then Rayleigh saved her, but this time instead of just her getting scolded, Kuhat was too. She blinked, thinking the memories away or else tears, and smiled, "I'm Kitaimo Hachiko! But please call me Chiko."

Garp furrowed his brows. What a weird child. But then again, he thought all children were weird. Small human things that weren't as strong. "Ok, Chiko. What were you doing on the Pirate King's ship?!" Honestly, kids these days.

Chiko looked up and put a finger to her chin, before looking back at Garp with a tilt to her head.. "They saved me from slavery! But pirates are bad so I couldn't stay with them, so now I'm here!" Not the full truth but technically not a lie either? The first half was definitely the truth though.

Garp tensed up and grimaced. He brought his arms up and crossed them, clenching his jaws. Right. Slavery.

Not exactly his favorite subject.

"You hurt brat?" He asked, making Chiko shake her head in denial. She mindlessly noted how he switched the topic but didn't comment on it. It's not something she liked discussing either. Garp wore a serious expression, wondering what on earth he was looking at.

An ex-slave child that was on the Pirate King's, his rival's, ship for god knows how long and now she was thrown from their ship to his and he basically has a stowaway? What was the protocol for that again… ah right. 1, interrogate stowaway. 2, make a report. 3, drop off at the nearest marine base. Then it's no longer his business.

...Oh man that was a lot of work. Especially step 2. Especially since 'Gol. D Roger', Garp rolled his eyes, is involved. Garp looked down at the brat who was looking at the sky and looked like she was about to fall asleep and fall into the ocean. If he was going to make a report, he'd have to mention the slavery bit- ah, that would mean she'd probably be returned to her owners. Or the slave house.

The marines officially don't do that, but he knows of the black mold in the marines called 'corruption' and unfortunately also the 'Dark Side of the World Government', and how they work off screen. She'd get snatched before he knows it. So maybe he could leave that out from the report-

He looked at the brat again.

He can't trust her not sprouting the same bullshit to anyone else.

He grunted and took her by the back of her collar. "Omph-"

"Alright, do you know who we are brat?"

No report, no stowaway. That's how it was an hour ago and that's how it stays. Plus he's kinda on vacation now, he was heading to Foosha village to check up on it. If anyone asks, well... he'll tell his crew to forget about the girl that was launched on this ship by the Pirate King. It's a small thing. Definitely forgettable. Garp nodded, confident in his plan. Sounded solid.

"Yeah, you're the marines-"

Well actually, didn't the mayor say that the barista of Partys Bar now had a kid? That's perfect! Kid bar, sounded good. Yeah, he can just dump this kid there and that means no extra work. Plus he'd be doing the bar a favor. An extra pair of hands. This plan sounded better by the second. Plus, less mess on his hands. Perfect.

"-I also want to be a marine when I grow up!" She finished and Garp perked up at that and then put her on his shoulder. She widened her eyes at the quick movement and adjusted perfectly since Kuhat had done this to her many times already.

Garp grinned. "Yeah! Marines are the best! Pirates are the worst!"

"Well actually I disagree with that, but marines tend to be better than pirates! Yeah!"

He blinked. Uh-

Garp had been walking aimlessly but something seemed to have caught the kid's attention because she gasped. "Oh wow, this is a big ship! Explore time!" She grinned, expertly jumped off Garp's shoulder and ran off.. Garp yelled, "No you brat! This isn't a playground!"

She begged to differ and let his words go in one ear and out the other. Garp sighed. Kids. Garp waved over the new cadet and ordered him to babysit Chiko, before making his way to his office. He had to think more about this situation… who the hell this kid was.

Chiko stopped running for a while, letting the cadet think he had a chance. She looked down at her wrist and saw the white bracelet, and touched it delicately.

Ray's lil bird.

She smiled and started to run again, giggling when she heard the fatigued sigh of the cadet behind her.

XXX

Garp has seen a fair bunch of kids in his life. He thought his son was special, because said son ran off from home saying some crazy things like overtaking the World Government- bonkers that son. And he's seen a bit more of kids. They usually liked sweet stuff and were pretty weak and didn't think much.

He thought his son was special and other kids were normal. But… he only got to know a handful of kids and now Chiko is one of them and she's very much 'special'. Is special the norm now? Are all kids this weird?

Why was she talking about a machine that sounded a bit like the train from Water 7 but it could go upwards and into the sky? The hell is this kid on? Was this maybe a way of telling him that he should punch her?

"-but then the rocket exploded cause… well, the engineers behind it didn't convert the appropriate measurement in the correct unit! It's so- so dumb. Don't you think so?"

His cadet was the one suffering the brunt of the talk, since their conversation led to this topic. Garp just wanted some coffee from the main room- he had totally forgotten about the kid that arrived two days ago, and just remembered when he bumped into this. The cadet nodded tiredly at the girl.

"Good, cause it is dumb. You know what else is dumb? People who think global warming isn't a thing. Like- it's killing everyone and yet people do nothing about it! Well not nothing, but you know what I mean right?"

Garp doesn't know and doesn't want to either. But he should probably save his cadet before it's too late.

"Shut up kid or I'm throwing you overboard."

Chiko looked to her right and at him. Ah, right, Garp. Him. She totally spaced out when she was ranting. She could barely even remember what she was talking about. Probably about frustrations from a life ago. "Hi! Please don't throw me away."

She stopped herself from wincing. Horribly put sentence, considering her past. Garp didn't even seem to think once about what she said. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Stop bothering my crew." The cadet seemed to register that as him being dismissed and bolted out of the room. Garp didn't even glance at the cadet while Chiko looked at the smaller man with an amused look. She looked back up at Garp, "what's up, doc?"

Garp lit up, an idea struck him. "You want to be a marine, so you wanna be strong?"

Chiko's eyes widened and she stood on the stool she was previously sitting on. "Yeah!" Where was Garp heading to? Because if it's where she thinks it is-

"And I cannot tolerate a weak marine on my ship."

She almost wanted to squeal.

"Yeah!"

"Can you swim?"

"YEAH- uh, wait, what- wait- wait- wait- hold on where are you taking me?!"

"Swimming!"

XXX

Somehow Garp's idea of taking care of a child is putting a rope around their waist and throwing -very huge emphasis on throwing- said child in the ocean. While the ship is still sailing.

Chiko will never know how she remained alive.

"You're kinda slow," was the only thing Garp said to her when he hauled her back on the ship.

"I'm eight! What did you expect?! Me to be faster than the ship?!" She gasped and laid on her back, her lungs screaming at her from the torture- well, not just lungs, her whole body. She was still dripping wet and she thanked the sun as it warmed her up.

Garp crossed his arms and shrugged. "Yeah."

What the hell?!

XXX

Since then, Garp would start to 'train' Chiko on board. She'd sometimes try to hide or run away but he always found her. So she had no choice. But… well, she was getting some muscles? So it's… worth it? She has a lot of bruises now too.

It was after dinner and her and Garp were just hanging around in his office. He was doing some paperwork while Chiko should have been reading some boring propaganda books on marine that Garp had as decoration pieces -she assumed- on his shelves. She also noted how this office is smaller than Roger's office, but also a hell of a lot cleaner and more light. But… also a lot of charisma. You could tell Garp was one to keep and stash things, from the little trinkets from everywhere.

Anyways, Chiko had a brilliant idea and stood on her feet.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Chiko yelled, putting her hands together to form a '+' with her fingers. She waited for a few moments, hoping that something would happen, and when nothing happened she sighed and stood up correctly again. "It was worth a try," she mumbled to herself. It took Garp a split second to decide what to do.

By the next second, Chiko was crouching and was holding her throbbing head, while Garp's fist smoked and he stood by her. "Ooww! Garp-san! What the fuck?!" He punched her again, making her crouch even further down and held her poor, poor head. "A lady shouldn't use language like that, you damn brat!" he yelled back. She stood back up and glared at him. "That's sexist!"

At that, Garp hummed.

"Huh, it is."

He nodded.

He punched her head for the third time.

"Kids shouldn't use language like that!"

"OOOWWW!"

XXX

Chiko watched on the sidelines as Garp took some cannonballs and with ease used his own power and muscles to act as an organic cannon and threw the cannonballs to some pirate ship that were gutsy enough to attack them first.

After fifteen minutes, the pirates were apprehended and locked under the ship somewhere. Chiko looked curiously at the cannonballs in a crate. The ones that Garp were throwing to the pirates. He made them look so… light. Were they lighter than what they looked like? Her hands itched towards one of the cannonballs the moment Garp walked back on deck. He had had a great plan of making her climb up and down the mast and was about to yell his orders to her but he stayed mouth closed at what he saw.

Chiko couldn't even budge the cannonball.

She furrowed her eyebrows.

No way she was that weak.

Garp silently watched her, his amusement growing.

Chiko carefully went on the crate of cannonballs and used both her hands to try and lift one cannonball. With all her might, she raised for a centimeter or two… until it slipped out of her hands, making her unbalanced, lose her footing- and now she's on the ground… more specifically her upper back and shoulder blade are on the ground, while her feet were in the air and the rest of her back leaned against the crate.

She blinked, wondering why everything was dizzy and upside down… until familiar shoes appeared in front of her. Ah, she's the one that's upside down. And what the hell is that roaring laughter- was-

"AHAHAHAHA! You're SO weak!"

She sighed. Of course Garp was watching….

"Ok, you're gonna go up the mast and down 100 times. Go, go!"

XXX

"Oh, is that your island? Garp-san?"

Garp grinned and nodded. "Yeah! Home sweet home!"

It hadn't even been a week since she started sailing with Garp. But then again, they traveled through the Calm Belt so getting from the Grand Line to East Blue was actually pretty simple. Chiko gazed at the island, Dawn Island... Where far too many main characters are. It was amusing to see that the weakest sea held some of the most terrifying people. Dragon, his son, his father, Sabo, Ace… well, Ace wasn't born in East Blue, but still.

"Am I gonna stay there?" Chiko asked Garp, who nodded again. "Yeah! This place is the safest place I know. You'll be fine here. You can train and once you're 17, you can enroll in the marines!" Chiko grinned and stared longingly at the island.

That was exactly the plan. She couldn't wait to step on the island and leave Garp's torturous training so she could do things she liked… and maybe she'll keep some of Garp's training regimes. Maybe. It was still hell though. But hey, no pain no gain as they say.

Her messy brown locks moved with the salty sea wind, as her green piercing eyes seemed to shine with excitement. She missed the Roger crew terribly, most of all Rayleigh, but this was fine. She shoved what happened before Rayleigh saved her to the deepest part of her mind. She would ignore that part of her life, everything before her 8th birthday, she decided, would be forgotten. Or at the very least, ignored. Even if the scar on her left hand was a constant reminder of that period of her childhood. Her and Crocus realized that her 8th birthday had passed a month prior from when Rayleigh saved her. Which made the total time span of… the horrible time, two years and a month.

The only family she knows are the Roger Pirates. No one else.

But maybe she could extend her family in Foosha village.

It brought a smile to her face at the thought.

Soon, the ramp was brought down from the marine ship to the port and Chiko had to scowl.

This isn't Foosha village. This is the disgusting city that had disgusting nobles in them. She turned around to look at Garp, who was taking his sweet time to walk down the ramp. "This isn't a village," she wisely pointed out.

"Yeah, this is a city." That didn't answer the question she implied.

"C'mon brat, we gotta walk for a bit. I'm not slowing down." She nodded and started to tail him, while also looking around. Well, if she's gonna stay on the island for a while, then she might as well know this place as well.

It took five hours of walking to get to Foosha island.

Chiko's feet started to hurt a long time ago, while Garp was happily whistling, as energized as before. What else would you expect from a Vice Admiral after all? They had long walked away from the city, at one point they were in a tunnel with upwards stairs until they arrived somewhere on a mountain and they had to walk a bit more upwards before they had to walk back down and now they were in a path way with a lot of forest/jungle.

A tiger had tried to jump them but Garp had laughed and punched the fuck out of that tiger and now all wild life were not stepping close to them.

Soon, the jungle was slowly fading out and there were hills every now and then and- windmills! Windmills!

"Oh finally!" Chiko gasped while Garp looked around, as if uninterested. Slowly, they were coming up to streets that had buildings, shops, stands and most of all- people.

"Hey, it's Garp-san!" a villager called out when they saw Garp walking on the main street of the small village. Garp laughed and greeted a few people as Chiko tailed behind him, looking at all the new people. A few noticed her.

"What the- do you have a kid!?" One exclaimed, making Chiko let out an amused giggle. "Hi! I'm Chiko!" she introduced herself, while Garp shrugged. "I found her on the sea in the middle of a battle, no worries," he says and continued walking as if what he said was completely normal. She couldn't help but giggle some more and followed the man in front of her.

The sun wasn't hitting the village hard, since it seemed to be around 17 o'clock, from what she assumed from the position of the sun, and the small breezes of wind helped with the temperature.

"Well, well, well, you're finally back." Chiko blinked and stood behind Garp as he spoke to someone else. Peeking behind him, Chiko saw a much smaller man with a sort of red, green and yellow bagel hat thingie on his head. "Hah yeah! Any troubles here mayor?"

Mayor? Ah! This must be Foosha Village's mayor! … He looks much younger than what she remembered from the series.

"Aside from you and that pesky mountain bandits, no, tsk!"

Ah? Mountain bandits? Already?

"Ah… they're back?" Garp put a finger in his nose, uncaring, "Didn't you say you were gonna handle them?"

The mayor scowled and stomped one foot, "I am! Watch me!" Chiko giggled at the mayor's reaction, which seemed to catch the man's attention since he snapped his gaze towards her. Deciding that her cover was blown, she emerged from behind Garp and waved. "Hi!"

"What the- you- you got yourself another devil?!"

Chiko tilted her head and remained smiling. But… 'another' devil?

And a devil…?

...wait a second-

AH FUCK THAT'S RIGHT- DRAGON!

"Nah, just a brat I found. Actually mayor, can you take care of her?"

She quickly pushed the thought away, she'd have to think about that more. "What, no." The mayor immediately rejected the idea which made Chiko snort and Garp sighed and rubbed his neck. "... Ok, Julia has a kid now, so she'd probably like another. C'mon Chiko."

Chiko nodded and started walking next to Garp as they headed off to somewhere, while the mayor sputtered. "Wha- it's not even her kid! It's-ugh! Garp!" Garp smartly ignored the mayor while Chiko had the time to think about exactly who Garp is.

Garp is the father of Dragon. Dragon. The revolutionary mastermind. The chief. The boss. The most dangerous man in the future. And- well, Chiko wasn't sure about the timeline but isn't Dragon supposed to be around her age? Cause- she breathed in deeply. Wasn't Dragon around 50 or something when the series started- he looked 50. And the series starts 20-ish years after the death of the absolutely amazing man Gol. D Roger. So when Roger dies, Dragon is thirty-ish… and well… Chiko doesn't know when Roger's gonna die.

Hopefully not soon. But at most in ten years. Probably. So… Dragon is, at his youngest ... twenty? Twenty years old or older. Ok… that is… very quite interesting actually.

Chiko sneaked a look at Garp who was talking to someone… Did this mean that Dragon already went off to do his revolutionary things? Probably, considering he's not here or something.

"-Chiko! Yeah, she's an airhead."

Chiko puffed her cheeks, "What no I'm-" she looked around and saw that Garp and her had walked in a wooden building- a bar, considering the counter they were in front of and the round wooden tables that surrounded them- and they were facing an elderly woman that seemed to be the barista. "-I'm not an airhead!"

"You are."

"I'm not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"For goodness sake, you two shut up."

Garp and Chiko glared at each other intensely for another hot second before the two boredly looked at the woman, as if what happened never happened. "Yeah, so take care of her," Garp said, grabbing the sides of Chiko's shoulders and made her sit down on the counter. Chiko looked back and could now clearly see the elderly woman. Garp had said something about a 'Julia', so Chiko assumed that the woman in front of her is this Julia.

"Hi! I'm Chiko, nice to meet you Julia. Please take care of me," Chiko bowed slightly and poorly before sitting up properly again and smiling at the woman. Julia raised an eyebrow before letting out a sigh. "Yeah, alright. I need extra hands anyways..."

Garp barked out a laugh, "Hah! Knew it!"

Chiko was about to join in the laughter but something green caught her sights. Chiko tilted her head, making her messy brown locks fall over her shoulders as she stared at the back entry, behind the bar. She could see dark green locks of hair trying to hide behind the door. Chiko blinked. Is that who she thinks it is?

"Ah, Makino-chan, come out. Chiko-chan here is going to be helping us from now on."

Called it. Chiko swung her feet over the counter and easily hopped off the counter to be behind it and she eagerly made her way towards the young hiding girl. The girl squeaked when Chiko shoved herself to be in front of the girl. "A-ah-aah…!"

Chiko's eyes widened as well as her grin.

"Hell yeah dude."

XXX

To say that the island was underwhelming was a fact. But it couldn't beat the equally true fact that the island has a lot of potential. What kind of potential? The potential of adventure and becoming hella frickin' strong, that's what!

Garp could only stay for three days and then promptly left Chiko with a pat on the head and a bruise on her leg because he told her climbing a tree and doing push ups on a branch was a good idea. It wasn't. He had laughed and carried her to Julia when she fell.

Other than that, Julia was a quiet old lady. And… pretty tsundere as well. Meaning, she definitely cares about people but never openly shows it. It gets endearing at times, which was why Chiko easily got attached to the lady. Chiko would help with customers, usually serving and getting orders, or cleaning dishes. Makino seemed to help with the cooking sometimes, despite how she was a year younger than Chiko.

It was a very stress free life. Chiko had only been there for two weeks now and had started to become used to this lifestyle. Julia also housed Makino, even if the two aren't at all related. Chiko had asked Makino if she was the daughter of Julia, but she shook her head no and shrugged, a sign of not wanting to talk about it. So Chiko nodded and carried on with her day. Chiko and Makino also shared rooms and at the start Chiko would only sleep on a mattress on the ground since Julia didn't own an extra spare bed, obviously. But yesterday Julia had bought one for Chiko and Chiko couldn't have thanked the older woman enough.

In any case, each day repeated itself. Chiko sometimes dwelled in the jungle but not in too deep because she didn't want to get lost and scare Julia just yet. In two weeks time, definitely.

But exactly two weeks after Garp left, something out of the norm happened.

The bar had a couple of customers… until the bar doors slammed open. Chiko had been carrying an empty tray back and jumped at the noise. She looked back and saw… a tall woman with a couple of people behind her. The woman stood tall and proud, looked quite athletic, leaning on the thin side, with a grin and massive curly orange hair.

The bar immediately went quiet and uncomfortable.

The orange haired lady confidently walked up to the bar and slammed her hand on the counter.

"Ten barrels of booze. Now."

Julia was calmly wiping down a plate. "We only have four in stock at the moment. Wait next week and we'll have more than enough for you and your little gang."

Chiko recovered from her shock and grinned. Go Julia! Chiko quickly walked behind the counter but still stayed at a safe distance from these too proud customers.

The orange haired lady snarled, "Haah!? Does it look like I wanna stay here?! Give it to me, or else!"

Julia didn't seem in the least bit intimidated.

"Or else what? You'll walk out of the bar like sore losers?"

Chiko slammed her hand over her mouth and nose to silence the snort of amusement that wanted to come out of her. Holy shit, Julia! What the hell-

The orange haired lady turned red and grabbed- she grabbed Julia's collar?! Chiko silently walked towards a plate that was not yet cleaned behind the counter and grabbed the dirty knife that had been laying innocently on it. She inched towards Julia and the bitch.

...until the bitch let go of Julia's collar and finally Julia stood back to her feet and coughed slightly. "Whatever old hag, give me what you got. C'mon! If you wait any longer, you're gonna die!" The gang behind her started laughing at her 'joke' and Chiko decided to analyze the faces of each one of them. Julia nodded and went through the back door of the bar as the bitch sat by the counter and her gang took seats and made themselves far too much at home.

Well, if that's the case..

Chiko grabbed the little stand her or Makino used if they took orders from the counter. Full intent to bother these people, she started humming very badly -it sort of sounded like grunts- a made up tune as she cleaned dishes. It helped that the bitch was seated by the counter, right next to Chiko.

After seven seconds, the bitch snarled and slammed the table and looked at Chiko. "Shut the hell up."

Chiko grinned, "Oh! You took the words right out of my mouth." And Chiko continued on horribly humming and moved on to wash a spoon. "The hell did you say to me-"

The water hit the spoon's caved curve and splashed water on Chiko and on the woman. Chiko didn't look in the least bit sorry. "Ah! Didn't know it rained indoors. How peculiar!" Chiko quickly grabbed the dirty knife just as the bitch went to grab Chiko's collar. The woman, good on her reflexes, stopped moving when she noticed the dirty knife pointed towards her palm.

Chiko had pointed it outwards from her collar, where she pretty much predicted where the bitch would go reach out.

The bitch blinked.

"I'm doing the dishes, careful now. Now back off, I only clean plates and silverware, not dirty disgusting bitches."

The bitch was turning red in anger.

"WHY YOU-"

"Your order's here, the total is-"

The bitch pushed Chiko back, making the girl take a few steps back to keep her balance. The bitch snarled, glaring at Chiko, while Chiko looked blankly at the older woman.

"Boys, pay. We're getting outta here, this place stinks," the bitch said, all the while glaring at Chiko. Chiko quirked a small smirk, finding it funny that the bitch was to mention that, even if it was her and her cringy gang that brought the stench. The 'boys' slapped a few bills on the counter and took the barrels of booze before they all waltzed out.

Julia picked up the bills from the counter, grimacing. "They didn't even know the total, and they paid for just a bit more than the half..."

Chiko kept her eyes at the bar's doors that were still swinging a bit from the brusque exit. She hated those people. They manage to flip the atmosphere in less than a second and not only that, they stole from Julia. And threatened her.

Chiko put the dirty knife on the counter and scowled.

"I'll have to tell Garp the mountain bandits are back at it… with their new curly leader," Julia mumbled to herself and she passed by Chiko to put in the bills by the counter, in a tray. Chiko glanced at poor Julia, who was old and fray, despite how much of a fight she always put up. With a busy mind, Chiko went back to washing dishes.

Julia looked at Chiko for a bit before sighing softly to herself. She saw Chiko's reaction, and despite how shocking it was for a child, it made sense given the circumstances. Garp had explained and detailed Chiko's past to him. Julia's heart ached at what the young girl next to her went through. So… maybe pulling out a knife to some bandit was normal, given her situation?

A few hours passed and Julia had dismissed Chiko, with a 'Have fun, come back before dark.' So Chiko had nodded and walked off outside. She started walking towards the port, which led to a jog to then a full sprint. With all her might, she ran and ran and ran. As fast as she could, until she reached the end of the port, where a small ship was docked, out of breath. She wheezed and her sides hurt, and her lungs were quite angry.

'But it's not enough,' Chiko thought bitterly. It wasn't fair, she had the wit of an adult, the knowledge and the experience. But her body was one of a child, which made her less mature almost by default. The bitch could have kicked Chiko to death and Chiko wouldn't have been physically strong enough to stop it.

She remembered the promise she made on Roger's ship. To become a marine. How could she, if she couldn't even stop that bitch from hurting Julia? She crouched down and clenched her teeth. This is so frustrating! Why- why was the stupid mountain bandit in Partys Bar?! Stupid bandits. Stupid, stupid-

"Chiko-san…?"

Chiko snapped her head up and met the flinching eyes of a certain green haired girl.

"Makino...chan…?"

The girl gulped but put on a confident smile, and even if it was wavy, Chiko felt reassurance from it.

"I… I have a cool place to see the sunset… wanna join me?"

Chiko furrowed her brows, before nodding mutely. The brown haired girl followed the green haired girl silently. Did she really look that sad that Makino wanted to help? And how did Makino find her anyways? Probably Julia. Caring old hag. Chiko would have smiled if it wasn't for her heart aching.

After a bit of walking, Makino and Chiko stood in front of a stone house. Two stores high maybe. Makino was looking on top, and gulped, as if remembering something. Chiko sent her a curious look and looked at where Makino seemed to be looking. On top of the building.

"We- we just need to climb, haha..." Makino said softly, looking a little pale. Chiko glanced at her and saw Makino fidgeting. Was Makino afraid of heights? Was this Makino's first time climbing this? It can't be, since she is the one proposing to climb. But… why did she seem so nervous then?

"You're nervous," Chiko stated, making Makino wince once again and then sigh defeatedly. "Yes… I never climbed this. My friend that left always carried me… so now..." she looked up to the top of the building with a sad and defeated look. Chiko quirked a smile at her cute expression and patted her head. Makino squeaked and looked up at Chiko, yes Chiko was a bit taller than Makino, a fact she liked.

"Well, there's two ways to do this. You get on my back and I may be strong enough or we both climb, but I'll go after you."

Makino tensed up and looked at Chiko with quivering eyes, trying to decide between the two. Chiko smiled softly, waiting patiently for the child to make up her mind. Until Makino softly nodded, a bit of fear settled in her eyes. "I'll- we'll both climb!" This time she nodded with more determination.

Chiko nodded and took a step back so Makino could start climbing. The house was made of stone, but it had pieces of stone sometimes sticking out or caving in, which made it ideal for climbing. Makino shakily stretched her hand out, and before they knew it, they were climbing.

Chiko was mildly surprised Makino was holding up, despite the heavy breathing.

Then, they were both sitting on top of the stone building, looking at the sunset as they hung their legs over the edge, the soft salty wind going through Chiko's soft and messy brown hair, and in Makino's silk like green hair.

"I've always loved the sun set," Makino said softly, after who knows how long. Her breathing had long since calmed down. "Oh yeah?" Chiko asked back, thinking about familiar scenes in her mind about this. Films upon films had a scene with a sunset. Even her previous life. She saw it a couple times… but somehow, they weren't as spectacular as this. Maybe it was because her previous world was overflowing with pollution, or maybe it was another reason. But… this felt nice.

Almost freeing, for some reason.

"It has so many colors! It's so very beautiful. People say sailors are lucky to be able to see this everyday after a day of hard work… I wanted to become a sailor before because of that," Makino giggled. Chiko hummed. Sailor, huh? She supposes… "Used to?" Chiko asked. Makino nodded and swung her feet outwards, and back down only to lightly hit the stone building.

"I want to be a barista in Party's Bar now," she grinned and looked at Chiko with a flustered smile. Chiko blinked and tilted her head. That was very specific, compared to her previous very vague profession dream. "Ah?"

"Yeah… it's… well, Julia-san helped me so much. And, well, seeing so many happy people at the bar makes me happy. Plus," then her smile widened, "I don't need to be a sailor to see this sunset! I can just come here!"

Chiko blinked at her and then looked back at the ocean, towards the lowered sun. The sun has long since gone down below the waves, the remaining colors still in the sky, shining wonderfully. Chiko pulled a leg back toward her chest and set her chin to her knee.

It was a wonderful sunset.

XXX

Somehow, they made it a tradition. Everyday, they would meet up there to see the sunset. Makino would be the one that talks, sometimes about Julia or the food she likes, the future, what she did that day, while Chiko would listen quietly.

Before Chiko knew it, two months had passed by. Slowly, she would spend less time at the bar and more time in the jungle. She'd always be back to see Makino on the stone building at sunset though, but that didn't mean she didn't return without a scratch. While she trained her legs to jump further and ran further, branches became more of an obstacle and she had to learn to go around trees and rocks- more importantly animals, but when she couldn't go around or dodge fast enough, injuries happened.

But nonetheless, it was worth it. She had found many dangerous animals and while she still had a long time to map out the whole forest, she still made good progress. For lunch, she had tried to make a fire and it failed miserably, so instead she ate some berries she knew weren't poisonous.

By the base of a tree, Chiko panted softly and looked at the dirty knife she held in her hand. She had snitched it from Julia's kitchen. She had managed to defend herself pretty well with it, from that one snake, but… it wouldn't do. Not in the long term at least. She'll have to find a solution.

A crack to her right made her look there… she paled. Tenfold.

A humongous fucking tiger growled, walking towards poor, small, weak Chiko. She gaped, no words coming out of her mouth as deep fear settled in her. She stayed frozen, as it seemed to take it's time to walk towards her, eyeing her form to see where it should bite first.

A gust of wind swept by, making her shiver and snap out of her frozen state. In a fight or flight response, she took both, threw her dingy knife at the tiger and ran as fast as she could. Then the tiger let out the loudest sound she has ever heard- the loudest, angriest roar Chiko could ever imagine to hear.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck I'm so fucked, fuck fuck fuck-" Chiko breathed out, her eyes narrowing as she looked for anything- anything that could possibly stop a huge ass Tiger. But of course there's nothing!

She jumped over a log and was quickly running away from it until- there was a flash above her and- is that the fucking log she jumped over a second ago?! It crashed on several trees in front of her, causing pieces of wood and splinters to fly everywhere, so she closed one eye for a bit and kept running, her heart beating fast and hard against her chest.

She felt pieces of wood fall in her hair but she kept going on.

There was a big hill up ahead and she snarled, climbing it as fast as she could. Oh man this was bad- real bad- on top of the tree was a big ass tree with roots that were sticking out and there were holes near it, so Chiko didn't even have to think to jump in one of the holes…

Only to fall down a fucking log hole-

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! ALICE IN WONDERLAND-

"Argh!" She hit the ground, finally, after hitting the very bumpy downward tunnel. She looked around in frustration, before she heard a loud roar above her and the tunnel trembling- oh man this place better not cave in… she gulped.

Hopefully it won't.

She looked around her and could barely even see. The only light came from the entrance that she fell in from, and the end of the hole was what you'd expect, just the end of a hole. A deadend. In fact, the diameter of this place was maybe half her height, so now she was awkwardly sitting on the ground, with her feet on the sides.

What the hell.

She heard the Tiger above her, some dirt falling off the walls or coming in from the top and landed to her stomach. After around what she assumed was fifteen minutes, she started to climb upwards. It was hard to grip on the dirt, since it wasn't hard and would often break, but with effort and sweat, she managed to see the exit…

And a paw.

Yo, what the hell.

She froze. What could she do now? Was it waiting for her-

A snore caught her attention. A snore. She blinked. And gulped. Slowly, ever so softly, she crawled out of the hole. And lo and behold, the huge ass tiger was there. Snoring. Sleeping. Napping? As silently as she could, she crept around it, making sure nothing like a twig or a crunchy leaf was anywhere near her feet, and mindful of the tiger's body. When she was away from the tiger, her walk became faster.

And faster.

And faster.

Until she started to sprint as fast as she could go back to Foosha Village. She doesn't know how long it took. This deep in the forest/jungle was easily two hours away from Foosha. When she arrived in front of the bar, the stars were out and the skies were basically pitch black. She panted, the adrenaline still in her system.

But nonetheless, she smiled.

Maybe chuckled.

Then snickered.

"What are you doing, out at midnight, laughing like a hooligan!"

She grinned and looked up at Julia.

"Makino was worried sick!"

Chiko gazed a bit downwards and saw Makino. And her worried expression. And- where those tears? Oh no. Chiko's smile vanished and she stood up correctly, still panting though. "I-uh… yeah, sorry. It's just- got caught up..."

"Oh no, Chiko-chan! You're injured!" Makino gasped, jumping to her feet to go to Chiko. Now that she mentioned it… parts of her body do hurt. "Come! I'll- well, Julia-san and I will patch you up. Come on!" she held onto Chiko's hand and Chiko smiled, letting herself be dragged by the younger girl, as Julia let out an exasperated sigh and followed behind.

Despite how exhausted she was and how she was in pain, because yes, that does sting Makino, she felt happy. It was weird that she felt happy as Makino and Julia fretted over her, but she was happy. Very happy. Something inside her heart felt warm and she grinned, thanking the pouting Makino and the scowling Julia.

XXX

"Goa Kingdom?" Chiko parroted Julia, who nodded. It's been a few weeks since Chiko came back from that tiger attack and was now eating breakfast at the bar with Makino. Julia nodded, "Yes, I need to make a few orders from there. You two will be babysat by the fisherman's son."

Makino and Chiko looked at each other, before Makino nodded softly and Chiko looked disapprovingly at Julia. "I think, instead, we should go with you!" Makino perked up at that and Julia raised an eyebrow. "And make a mess? No. You're staying here."

Chiko frowned, "C'mon! Please? I'd like to go to a city, sounds… eventful..." She put her fork to her plate and pouted softly. The city sounded way more fun than Foosha village and she really wanted to see the different shops. She had been meaning to go alone, but through the forest would take a few days at her pace, so she never attempted. And she forgot the way her and Garp went. She pouted even further, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked sadly at her plate of half eaten breakfast.

Julia brustled. Before she had to deal with Makino's puppy dog eyes, and still has to. Actually, she has to deal with it even more cause of Chiko's bad influence. But Chiko's puppy dog eyes went to a whole new level. It hit her hard in the heart. Chiko looked so sad, so miserable. Literally like a sad, kicked, puppy dog in the rain.

Julia kept strong for a few more seconds, until she broke down.

"You can come…." she gave in.

Chiko looked up with widened eyes, her smile stretching out and she let the excitement fill her body. "Seriously?! This will be great, so amazi-"

"On one condition!"

Chiko shut up and nodded violently.

"You stay close and don't make a mess."

Chiko grinned.

"No problem!"

XXX

Julia scowled, "No problem? No problem my ass! Where the hell is that squirt?!"

One hour in since they have arrived at the city and she already went on her own way. Chiko was fully conscious that she walked off, but sometimes, lying is fine. Chiko nodded. Sometimes, lying does more good than bad. She doesn't know if that will be the case for her, but it doesn't matter because she has a goal.

Julia had given her money.

You better damn know she's going to get something to defend herself in the forest.

And maybe get some good food. Yeah, that also sounds good.

Julia said they'd be staying for one day and one night, and since Chiko knows the hotel name and room number already since Julia told her, of course she left! Dandy good stuff. Chiko looked around herself, taking in the new sights. Goa Kingdom was more colorful than what she remembered. She originally thought that all buildings were grey and dull, but no. Each building had a color, and even the citizens were dressed colorfully.

But they all seemed quite snobby. Maybe it's because she lived away from the city, but Chiko didn't want to dwell on that thought too much. More importantly, she didn't want to attract attention and she needed to buy something to help herself in the forest.

She looked around herself and only saw people talking to one another, or laughing in that weird way the rich do. The streets were clean too, Chiko noticed, and idly wondered who cleaned them. She almost tripped when 'slave' popped in her mind. Ah right. That's a possibility. But here, in the East Blue? Didn't seem too likely.

Then again, she didn't think slavery in general was likely before, so who knows.

She ruffled her soft messy brown hair, she didn't like those thoughts. Distraction. Come on, distraction-

A man with a sword on his waist walked past her, and it made her halt and look at his sword as he walked away from her. Right. A weapon. For the forest. She nodded, time to find a weapon's store. It took her a good hour until she found a weapons store, she may have gotten lost a few times as well, and she was surprised. Why didn't Goa Kingdom have more of these weapons stores? Honestly. Pirates come here all the time and there's the Gray Terminal! Whatever, their problem.

She walked in the shop and the bell by the door rang.

"Hello dear customer, what can I do for you- ugh, it's another brat..."

Rude.

"Hey, I'm here to buy!" she quickly said back to the man at the counter. The shop looked like it was polished. It was perfectly clean and sparkling. There were mostly guns, but there were still a few swords and knives here and there. There were even glass tables to see smaller weapons. The man by the counter had one of those fancy curly mustaches with blond hair and a top hat.

Lots of men here had top hats she noticed.

"Yeah, yeah, you do you kid. Just don't bother me, I'm busy."

Chiko huffed and started looking around the store. She needed something light, but that could do damage. Also something with multiple purposes, like skinning animals. So guns were out, and it left blades. She looked at the blades the store had to offer. They were all too long. They were either like sabers or like those fencing swords. Her brows furrowed. So a small blade then?

She looked over the glass tables that had smaller blades and pistols in it. Her eyes immediately went to a very pretty dagger. It had a nice curve, was all black and had a nice polished wooden handle. "Hey! How much is this one?" Chiko asked the man by the counter, who sighed softly and looked over to the blade Chiko was pointing at.

"As is or customized?" he drawled, as if he's done this far too many times. Chiko's eyes lit up. "Customized?!"

He sighed. "The handle has different coatings… and different materials. Lighter woods to darker woods with motives. We have leather, snakeskin- ah, wait no, not that anymore… and a few others. So, what will your choice be?" his eyes were almost closed from how bored he seemed to be. Bad customer service, this is. Chiko shrugged. "Actually no, as is. How much?"

"31 thousand bellies."

Chiko stopped touching the glass as if it burnt her hands.

She gaped at the man, "Seriously!?" The man nodded in a bored manner and also hummed un-enthusiastically. Chiko looked back at the beautiful dagger and sighed. Julia had given her 5 thousand bellies. Wasn't even close to what that dagger was.

Chiko sighed. "What's the cheapest blade you got?"

"A second hand switch knife at 4 and half thousand."

Chiko winced. Just in her budget.

"Are there… any cheaper weapons store nearby?"

At that, the man scowled. "Unfortunately no, I get the worst materials around her and I was known for my snakeskin handles! But now my- whatever. No. Other weapons stores are all guns, and you seem interested in blades in any case."

The man was more observant that she originally thought, but that didn't make her situation any better. She sighed and looked down at the far too expensive dagger. Some other time. "Can I see the second hand switch knife?"

He grunted and bowed down to the counter and took out a wooden box and placed it on the counter in front of him. Chiko jumped on the chair in front of the counter or else she'd be too small to see, which made the man grimace at her. He slid the cover off and Chiko grinned when she laid her eyes on it.

"Dude, hell yes."

"Please don't talk to me so familiarly."

It was wood and the polish didn't shine as beautiful as the other weapons in the store. You could tell it was used, from the grip and scratches, but it was still in peak condition. The blade was maybe 15 cm, making the hilt a bit longer than that. The blade itself was a normal gray color, only one side of it was sharp.

The man took it out, closed and opened it. "It clicks when it's locked open or closed."

"May I?" he wordlessly handed it over and Chiko played with it for a few moments, opening and closing it. She looked closely at the sharp edge and quickly determined that yes, it's pretty sharp. "You think I can kill monkeys and tigers with it?" she asked seriously as she still eyed the blade. The man blinked.

"Uh- sure."

"Alright, swell. I'm taking it amigo."

The man furrowed his brows, "Amigo- nevermind. 4.5 thousand then." She handed him 9 bills of 5 hundred from her pocket, which were all crumbled up together. He grimaced at the crumbled bills but still took them, and once he saw they were legit, he eyed her. "With the container?"

She shook her head, "Nah! I'll be taking it like this!" She eyed the beautiful blade that she now owned. "By the way, is it legal for kids like me to buy stuff like this?"

At that question, the man huffed. "Of course. I wouldn't risk my career on some brat," he said as he put away the box the previous blade Chiko now owned was in. In any case, that answer was concerning. So really anyone could buy weapons? That seemed insane. Chiko pursed her lips as she kept her eyes on the blade.

Oh well, onto others matters. Names.

"I'm Chiko. What's your name?" The man peaked from below the counter, gave Chiko a deadpanned looked, before sighing. "Rafael Mireaux du Pont." Fancy fucking name that is. Chiko blinked and then looked at her blade. "Alright bladey, your name is now Miro!" The man behind the counter stood up with a scowl. "My middle name is Mireaux! Not Miro! And do not name a blade after me!"

Chiko snickered. "Alright Raf-san, I'll call bladey Mur then!"

Rafael sputtered. "Do not call me that!"

"Ah? You said something about snake skin? Can I help you with that?"

Rafael was slowly turning red in anger, which made a pretty hilarious contrast with his blond mustache and hair. He then breathed in and slowly was becoming less red. Chiko still sported a grin, not hiding how amusing she found this whole situation.

"Yes. My dealer left the island," he said through gritted teeth.

Interesting.

"So, can I get you snakeskin and you pay me?"

Rafael glared at Chiko. "As if a child like you can."

Chiko grinned, "It's a good thing I'm not a child then! I'll see you soon Raf-san!"

Then she walked out of the door of his shop with a satisfied grin, knowing that she left him fuming, angry and confused. What an amusing man. She looked up to the sky and saw that it was past midday. What to do, what to do… she looked up at the tall buildings. Maybe find a good view for the sunset? She smiled. That sounded good. And she could drag Makino as well.

Two hours later, she saw an ice cream seller selling a certain blue flavored ice cream and she grinned. Perfect.

XXX

"Chiko-chan, are you sure we're allowed to do this?" Makino asked shyly as they both walked up stairs in a certain building. Chiko may or may not have snitched Makino away from Julia when they both finished some of Julia's bar business. At least Chiko left a note on a table, as to not worry Julia. "No one stopped us and no sign said we couldn't do this, so I'm sure we're fine," Chiko reassured the younger girl. Makino fidgeted but still followed Chiko, "but the sign down there said 'no trespassing'." Chiko almost winced, since when could Makino read so well? "Well, sometimes to do good, we also need to do some bad. It's ok."

"But Julia-san also said to not do bad things..."

Chiko hummed. "Fair enough..." Chiko looked back at Makino and then grinned, "but still, isn't this fun? I promise it'll be worthwhile. And if you don't like it, we'll leave directly. And if someone catches us, we'll say we mistook the building for another, so we don't get in trouble. Sound fair?"

Makino still looked unsure, "But… this is bad..."

Chiko hummed but continued walking anyways, "It is. But we're not doing any harm, are we?"

"Yes we are!"

Chiko glanced back and then looked forwards, "Oh yeah? How?"

Makino gulped, "C-cause, we're in someone's place! Maybe their house! It's rude!"

So that's why. Chiko shook her head, "Nope, we're not. We're in some fancy dandy office building. People work here, so it's no one's home. And we can't get in the offices, cause it's locked, I tried. If anything, if someone doesn't want us to be here, it's because they're offended for the sake of being offended. What does some fishing office company even need to hide anyways?"

Maybe fishmen paperwork, but still, the offices are locked.

Makino gulped. They were now on the second last floor until the top and Chiko stopped walking with a sigh. She turned around to face Makino. "Makino-chan..." the younger girl looked up at the older one, "I promise it's fine. But if you're really not feeling up for it, we can go. I don't mind. Now, tell me, do you want to go back?"

It wasn't worth the sight if Makino was paranoid for every second of it anyways.

"I don't mind. I just want you to be happy."

Makino bit her bottom lip, and seemed to think a million things in a split second, before looking up at Chiko with a scared look. "Ok! I'll come with you!"

Chiko blinked. Before snorting and laughing. So cute. Chiko grabbed Makino's hand, "Ok, we're close. Just tell me if you want to leave, it's no problem!" And before they knew it, Chiko opened the door to the rooftop and they were both greeted by a beautiful warm sky.

Chiko grinned, satisfied, while Makino looked at the horizon in front of her with a stupefied look. Chiko pulled her towards the edge of the building. "You scared of heights?" Chiko asked, making Makino do a so-so gesture. So Chiko let Makino sit cross legged, a bit away from the edge as Chiko swung her feet over the edge, and put the plastic bag of cold goods between them. They were facing the ocean, the beautiful horizon. The sun was just setting, talk about perfect timing. The sky was painted in warm colors, red being the one that stretched out the most.

Chiko took out the ice cream from the plastic bag that had a plastic cover around it, and handed it to Makino. "Here, ice cream." Makino looked at Chiko, before taking the ice cream softly from her hands. Chiko took out the other ice cream from the bag and immediately tore the cover off. The blue, rectangular ice cream revealed itself.

"Ta-dah!" Chiko grinned as they both put the used plastic in the plastic bag. Makino looked at the blue ice cream curiously. "What… what flavor is this?" Chiko grinned, excitement filling inside her. "I never tasted it before as well but I heard it tastes great," she looked back at Makino with a closed eyes smile, "It's sea salt ice cream!"

Chiko looked back towards the horizon and with her eyes at the setting sun, she bit into the ice cream. Her eyes widened and held her mouth, as she tasted it. Makino also seemed curious and licked the ice cream. Her eyes widened, "A-ah! It's salty… but also sweet!" She licked again, "In a good way!"

Chiko giggled silently, "Exactly like what I've heard they were. This is amazing!" They both silently enjoyed the sea salt ice cream, and Chiko's heart was swelling from happiness. Being able to recreate this scene from a world away. Being able to be happy with a friend. Soon, the sun had set and the only thing that remained was the color red.

"Bet you don't know why the sun sets red," Chiko said serenely and kept her eyes at the setting sun, as Makino glanced at her. Chiko smiled, "You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest."

Makino giggled, making Chiko glance at her amused before setting her eyes back towards the horizon. "Like I asked! Know-it-all!"

Chiko's heart thumped against her chest and looked at Makino semi-surprised. She would have never thought that the quote would be finished by someone else. Chiko hummed softly, a genuine smile gracing her lips.

Watching the sunset with some sea salt ice cream, laughing with a friend.

She grinned.

She felt like a nobody and it was the best feeling.

X Omake X

Shanks woke up with a jolt. He heard something like a cannonball hitting the ocean and the ship was rocking more than normal. He blinked. Wood…? He's back on the ship…? Looking down, he saw he had bandages covering his body here and there. His eyes darted around him and saw he was on the ship's medical bay… and his straw hat sat on the chair next to him..

Wait a second, he heard a cannonball…

His eyes widened. A cannonball!?

He threw the covers off him, grabbed his straw hat and put it on as he rushed out of the room. He looked around and most people were at the front of the ship so he rushed there, shoving his crew mates away to be in the middle of the fight.

"Captain!" he yelled, seeing Captain Roger standing by the railing of the ship. He stood by him, putting his hands on the railing as he wheezed. He looked at the ship in front of him… and then stood up correctly, recognizing the ship. "Oh, it's just Garp."

Roger looked at Shanks curiously. "Finally awake, huh," the captain mused. Shanks huffed but then grinned. "Yeah, and a whole lot stronger! Definitely stronger than Buggy!" Shanks said, pulling his arm up and then using his other hand to pat his bicep. "Stronger than Rayleigh as well-"

"Oh?" he heard behind him and then he paled. He turned his head and saw Rayleigh smiling down at him. "Ah."

Rayleigh looked amused, if anything else. But then he noticed something around Shank's right wrist. He stayed quiet, which made Shanks a bit worried and looked at where Rayleigh was staring.

"Hah? What's this?" Shanks wondered out loud. A red bracelet hung securely around his wrist. Rayleigh pondered to himself, why would Chiko give that to Shanks…? Unless… what Kuhat said is true.

"Mop head." Rayleigh said, in a surprising dark and stern voice. Shanks flinched, inching away from the right hand man. "Y-yeah?" he didn't even want to fight over that nickname. "Cleaning duty for two weeks." Rayleigh walked off, leaving a gaping Shanks behind. But- he didn't do anything!

So he snapped his head to his captain, "Captain...?!"

Roger shrugged. "Three weeks." Then Roger walked off as well. Shanks gaped even more, what the hell?!

* * *

**Oh man this chapter took so long to make hhhhhhhhhhh**

**This is the second last chapter of Chiko's childhood!**

**Do you guys know the quote _"_**_Bet you don't know why the sun sets red._**_"_ ?**

**Here's a hint: It's the game Kingdom Hearts! From a character called Axel.  
**

**Thanks **_KooraX _**for your comment! Yess there's so much fluff, I love it tooo. But it must come to an end sadly... but there's more to come with other people hehehe**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter! See you soon!**

**2020/3/27 - Edited, fixed some grammar ****issues**


	7. Disappointed

**I do not own One Piece**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Disappointed **

* * *

An eight year old played with a sharp knife, on top of a stone building as she watched the setting sun, waiting for a little girl to show up. She familiarized herself with the new knife, with each swish and swoosh, the clicks and movements. It felt satisfying to not knick herself each time she tried to hold it.

"Chiko-chan, sorry I'm late!"

Chiko looked down below her from where she was sitting and saw a huffing Makino below her. Chiko laughed, "What are you talking about? You're right on time! Come on up!" Makino nodded with childlike determination and climbed the uneven wall with practised ease. Soon she sat next to Chiko.

"What took you so long?" Chiko asked, since if there was someone that was usually late, it'd be her. The younger girl swung her legs a bit and shrugged, "Julia-san was teaching me some stuff." The delighted smile on the girl's face showed just how much she loved learning from Julia. Chiko suppressed the snicker and looked at the horizon.

"You are six years old now. About time you learned a thing or two," Chiko teased, only to receive a soft punch to her shoulder and a fuming child next to her. "I've learnt more than two things!" she complained, making Chiko snap her switch knife closed with a raised eyebrow. "I'll believe it when I see it."

The older child continued teasing the younger one until the sun laid below the seas.

XXX

To say the least, the switch knife was much better than Julia's silverware knife, which she used prior to her beautiful switch knife. As an eight year old, her strength was not the best. But that did not mean it was damn good. She now sat on a fallen log in the dense forest of Dawn Island, eating a boar she had hunted down. It was a small one, but hey, small victories.

Months had passed since she bought the switch knife, and even longer since she left Roger's crew. Foosha island was as uneventful as ever, and Julia and Makino were always at the bar. Chiko would help when the bar was generally full, but having so many people work at the bar would usually be overkill so she would train in the forest meanwhile.

Every few weeks, she'd see that she built more muscle here or there, and was glad she could see the progress. From both Roger's crew training and Garp's training, she had a very good base to start from, and a good idea on how to continue to challenge herself to become stronger and better. Of course, the experience and knowledge from a life ago helped tremendously.

One day, when it started raining pretty badly, Chiko made her way back to the village from the forest and was soaked wet when she was walking through the main street of Foosha Village. With a grand idea of hugging both Makino and Julia, she could almost picture their disgusted looks, she was about to open the doors of the bar.

However, she noticed how the hinges of the doors were a bit off. As well as how the doors in general seemed crooked.

The smile that was sprawled on her face was quickly replaced by a straight line. She silently entered the bar. Inside were a few customers, but they were all eerily quiet. Julia stood behind the counter and didn't seem much different, aside from that small downward pull on her lips. Chiko scanned the bar once more, before going up to Julia.

"What happened and where's Makino?"

Julia looked away from her work and saw the newest girl she's taken in, soaking wet, sitting on the tall stool that was right in front of Julia. The elder woman stood her ground for a bit more, but knew that there was no need in that so let out a silent sigh.

"The mountain bandits came back."

Hatred filled inside Chiko.

"What did they do?"

Julia silently set the dried glass back in it's correct place.

"Don't pull that look. They were annoying customers, that's it. They came, drank, was a hassle, broke a few glasses and chairs, paid for their drinks, then left."

Chiko crossed her arms and scowled deeply.

"Was curly hair there too?"

"With her goons."

Chiko nodded and bowed her head.

"Makino's at the back?"

Julia nodded. Chiko slipped out of the chair and went to the back room. Inside, Makino was sitting on a chair with a blanket around her, holding a hot beverage close to her body. "Hey Makino-chan," Chiko said softly and Makino looked up and smiled. "Hey Chiko-chan- oh! You're soaking wet, you need to-"

Chiko snickered and patted Makino's hair.

"I'll be fine for now. Now you tell me, are you alright?"

The younger girl opened her mouth, about to say something, but then hesitated and looked back down at her warm drink. "I'm… ok now. It was just very scary to see those bandits like that," she admitted and frowned. Chiko let out a sigh through her nose and nodded with furrowed brows. "I bet. But you did well... I… I'm sorry for not being there." Chiko bowed her head again, breathing in deeply.

"No, don't be sorry! It's alright, it's just- … yeah..."

Chiko smiled sadly, "I understand."

Chiko had dragged Makino to get a warm shower with her, and put the younger girl in bed. Makino fell asleep instantly. So when the bar was still open and more people that prefered drinking at night littered in, Chiko went behind the counter next to Julia, stood on a small stand and went to wash dishes, she started talking.

"Who exactly are they?"

Julia should've known that the girl would ask this. Chiko did not even need to specify who she was talking about.

"They are bandits, just like any other. They are up to no good and they steal from people around Dawn Island," Julia started and started to pour beer for a person. "They were always here, near Foosha, but recently they became much more active."

As they both worked, Julia told Chiko of these mountain bandits. They were nothing new, but their new leader was. Dandan, she called herself. Immediately, memories burst into Chiko's mind and was slightly stupefied that the 21 year old Dandan, who was now slim and somewhat beautiful, would turn into a hag (one that she is admittedly more familiar with).

This Dandan was up to much trouble, always coming up with schemes and bothering people. They lived in the mountains, surrounded by the forest, but no one knew exactly where they lived. Julia told a couple more stories about who, what, where, when they have stolen, or told stories about certain bandits from the group.

Chiko hadn't realized how much of a hassle they were. In the series, they were no big deal. If anything, they were mildly annoying to Foosha village. But now they posed an actual threat to the village, which seemed very bizarre to Chiko. So she pondered about the bandits until she and Julia closed the bar and called it a day.

Ever since that day, Chiko would return much earlier. She noticed how the bandits would usually come around an hour before the sun set, so she made sure to come a bit before that everyday. Makino was very happy to see her older friend more often and Julia, while not showing it, also seemed to like the change.

During the time she spent helping at the bar, she trained her observational skills. To see the people around her, to know when they would be done with a dish or meal, when a person would almost spill their drink, so forth. It was more draining than she thought, which she liked before it meant that it was worth investing this skill.

Two months had passed since the bandit mountains came to the bar, and that evening, Chiko heard unfamiliar voices from outside. She stepped towards Makino and smiled at the girl, "Hey Makino-chan? Do me a favor and stay at the back until I tell you to come out?" Makino, who was cleaning some cups, tilted her head.

"Why?"

"Just because."

Makino frowned softly, but nodded nonetheless, hopped off the stand and went to the back room. Five seconds later, the doors slammed open.

"Hah! Look at these morons!" laughter followed soon after. Chiko looked and saw a certain ginger curly haired woman, with some of her bandits goons behind her as she stepped inside. Chiko, trying to show how unbothered she was, smiled at a customer that had been waiting for their order.

"Beer with fries on the side, here you go! Can I get you anything else?"

Her words cut through the silence in such a contrasting way that Chiko almost burst out laughing. The man she served to shakily shook his head, making her grin and nod. "Alright, have a nice meal!" and she stepped back and, with a skip to her heel, walked back to the counter to set a few dirty dishes to the sink.

She knew she made a certain mountain bandit chef mad, but- oh my, what is that? Oh. Oh, that is all the fucks she gives for this woman, flying far, far away.

Dandan somehow managed to ignore Chiko and ordered from Julia. Chiko simply went on with her duties, carefully mindful of these new customers. She noted how the bandits did not have any sort of etiquette when drinking and were flailing around, like idiots.

Ah, a glass pint fell to the ground.

Looking from the bandits' face, it didn't seem not intentional.

"Oops," the dumbass bandit had to add.

Since Julia went to the back to get Dandan's ridiculous order, she had to be the one to clean the mess up. So with all the time in the world, she took the tray with a small broom and merrily hummed her way to the table of bandits. They were all laughing (at themselves, Chiko liked to think as a smile crawled on her lips) which did not deter the child and she quickly cleaned up the mess.

"Hey brat, you forgot to clean this up!"

She saw a bandit lift his half full cup from her peripheral.

With the instincts of when a snake had lunged at her three days ago, she snatched the deliberate falling cup mid air. The tray of residue glass fell to the ground and she smiled a far too happy smile at the bandit.

"You almost dropped this."

The bandit could only dumbly take it back, "Right. Uh, thanks."

Chiko beamed, "No problem!"

And then went back to cleaning, stood, walked to the trash to throw the broken shards away, and went back to cleaning the dishes behind the counter.

Slowly, Julia was rolling a barrel to the bar as Chiko kept an eye on the bandits, and mostly on Dandan, who seemed tame for some reason. Which seemed weird. Chiko has been acting innocently annoying for the whole time, which should have aggravated Dandan to action, but the woman was simply glaring at her ever so often.

Chiko glanced at the bandits that were seated at a table, acting like idiots and drinking. There were only three of them. Significantly less than before. Why would there be so little bandits this time around? And how come Dandan was so well behaved now?

This… couldn't be a coincidence… right?

…Ah.

Of course, recon. They're doing some recon. They're bringing attention here so that other bandits would not get as much attention. Chiko then stretched and huffed, quickly coming up with an excuse. "Julia, I need to take a dump. Imma tell Makino to take over me for a sec!" she called out, which made Dandan react hilariously for a second as she went to the back.

There, Makino stood, scared.

"The mountain bandits," she whimpered to Chiko. Chiko nodded and put her hands to Makino's shoulders. "Also known as dumbasses. Listen Makino, I need you to just do what you normally would do, ok?" Chiko looked at Makino's eyes, who trembled lightly. "I won't take long. I just need to check something. Can you do that for me?"

Makino frowned and her lip quivered.

"Just imagine if they were wearing pink tutus," Chiko started with a grin, "And some too tight white leggings." Makino giggled at that and Chiko's grin widened. "Well they are wearing that, they just don't know it." Makino giggled and looked up at Chiko, "That's not how it works," she whispered. Chiko winked at her, "Well it works for me, so that's how it should work."

They two smiled at each other for a few more moments, until Makino nodded. "Ok, I'll… do that. Please come back soon though..."

Chiko ruffled her hair, "Of course."

XXX

Chiko saw Dandan and her goons walk off, into the forest, as she sat on a roof. She was glad she listened to her guts, because they were right. The bandits had been walking around the village, inspecting a few houses and buildings. And since they are bandits, they were obviously looking if these places were good to steal from.

She found a few as they littered around the village.

With thoughts developing in her mind, she stepped back into the bar.

"Chiko-chan!"

The breath was knocked out of her lungs as a body lunged itself on her and embraced her tightly. "Where were you!?" Chiko, with an eye open, looked down and saw an almost crying Makino. Chiko smiled and patted her hair, "Just doing some sightseeing."

XXX

Dandan and her bandits did not come to the bar after that. However, for the next two months they would often come and harass people from the village. Pressuring them to give booze or money, or just being a general menace.

During that time, Chiko's 9th birthday passed. It was nothing big, just how she liked it. Julia had bought a chocolate cake and it was celebrated with her and Makino. From Makino she got a book about sea creatures, to which Chiko thanked her for. The day was well spent and she was very glad it was just eventful enough to be fulfilling.

A week later, Dandan's goons crossed the line.

Chiko had just returned from her daily outing from the forest when something felt wrong. Which was bizarre, because the village looked as it always did. But there was a feeling that something was wrong. So, littered with scratches of baby bears' claws, she ran towards the bar. Feeling like entering from the front would not be the best idea, she ran to the back of the building. And right enough, a man that wore the same clothes as the mountain bandits, was angrily talking to who she knew is Julia.

Then he pulled his hand back and a loud smack was heard.

Chiko tensed up when she heard a thud soon after. Her whole body seemed to be filled with energy for just a second. Each inch of her skin was hyper aware of itself. Something akin to cold water swept over her. Her pupils narrowed dramastically. No thoughts invaded her mind, just pure instincts and muscle memory. She could see nothing but that man.

She ran to him. With all her force, she jumped and slammed both feet to his side. He fell with a grunt. She also fell but braced herself for the fall. With no hesitation, she stood, pulled out her switch knife and when she heard the click she dove for the man again. He dodged fairly quickly. Her eyes narrowed to the now broken wine bottle he held in his hand.

"You- you crazy brat!"

He swung the bottle at Chiko but their height difference was to her advantage. He missed her by an inch. She went to his left and swung her knife to his side. He let out a gasp of pain and touched his side.

Blood.

"You… YOU BITCH!"

Chiko scowled and crouched when he swung at her again, making her get a scratch on her forehead. She quickly went between his legs and kicked upwards, right to his crotch. He fell to his knees. She was about to put her knife to his neck but he swung backwards. She just had enough time to step back to just get a cut to her arm.

She eyed the bottle that flung out of the bandit's hand and smashed against the wall. Her eyes locked back on his and without waiting, kicked his neck so he would fall to the ground, stomach down. He grunted and stopped all movement when he felt a sharp, cool piece of metal to his neck.

He didn't think he'd be taken down by a kid today.

Or ever, period.

"You're part of Dandan's group, aren't you?" He heard the voice of a child above him.

"Yeah, so what?!"

There was a cool silence and he could feel the knife press itself harder on his throat. Ok so maybe the kid was not fooling around.

"So tell her to stop. This is embarrassing."

The bandit flushes bright red. How dare this brat just humiliate his boss and him?!

"LISTEN-"

A drop of blood fell from his neck.

"If you think you can treat me like a child, think again," he could hear her just right next to him. He could ever feel her breath. He shivered.

He didn't think he'd be scared by a kid today.

Or ever.

"Tell your boss that by doing this, she angered a marine."

Then he no longer felt a press to his neck. He scrambled to his feet, and turned around as he stepped backwards. He only saw a smiling child, the same one he saw giggling at the bar a few months prior, with a switch knife tainted with a drop of blood.

He heard a click to the right and saw the old barista holding a gun to his face.

"Leave."

He didn't need to be told twice to run off.

Both Chiko and Julia watched the man scurry off back to the mountain before the child let out a sigh and the sounds of stretches. Julia lowered the gun and looked at the child. The child who just now clicked her knife closed and smiled peacefully, looking off to the distance of the mountains. Was she even a child? What just happened…? Julia did not know what to worry about more. The mountain bandit that was trying to steal from her, or the child that did not seem to mind hurting people.

And then Julia saw the wounds on the child's small form. "Chiko," she said warningly, making the child grin up at the older woman and Julia could not help but worry even if she tried to look stern. "I'll dress to your wounds as you tell me what happened."

Chiko shrugged and followed the older woman, but not before glancing behind her twice and locking the backdoor firmly.

Chiko simply told the woman, as she undressed to get a shower, that she was used to fighting like this in the forest. Not the truth, but Julia did not need to know that. After subtly changing the subject, Julia told her that Chiko just arrived when the man was getting aggressive when Julia said no to giving booze. Chiko frowned softly at the news and then thanked Julia for the help and went to wash herself as Julia went back to tend to the bar, where Makino was alone, unknowing of what happened.

XXX

"If you're gonna do nothing, Imma tell Garp."

There really was no other way.

The major looked at the small child in front of him, who wore a bandage on her forehead, jawline, forearm and two on each leg. He has bumped into the kid many times in these last couple of months, and she tended to be harmless.

Sometimes she would actively try to help around the village, asking who needed help and then she would try her best to help. When he bumped into that, he didn't mind. But when she was climbing houses, playing with that knife of hers, or pranking the civilians, he did mind.

He still is not over the fact that she faked spilling milk to him by the docks, such that it surprised him so much that he fell to the water.

He could still hear her laughter at him as he yelled at her.

"I am not doing nothing," he responded. He did not need to explain himself to a brat.

"Then it's close to nothing. If you don't want me to tell Garp and you're still doing nothing, then I'll go to their base alone."

He squinted his eyes.

He did not know what to believe.

On one hand, this is a brat. Brats often tell lies.

On the other hand, this brat came from Garp. And she apparently has a bad past, from what Julia and Garp told him. And the brat always goes to the forest.

"I'm dealing with the bandits. I told some fishermen to help me fend them off," and he's explaining himself to a brat. He scowled deeply.

"Not working. Why try to stop a bullet from entering the skin when you can break the gun altogether?"

Are nine year olds always like this? This reminded him much of Garp's own brat.

"We fended off five bandits," he said, as if proud of that fact and both warning the kid in front of him to not get too cocky. But the brat just sipped her orange juice, set it down, and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Out of fifteen. Miraculous, your 'fending' off."

His eyes twitched. Did she have to do those movements with her fingers as she said 'fending'? "In any case, this is none of your business," he tried to wave her off but she did not budge one bit. She calmly looked at him, with patient eyes that he had never seen in a child before. "Ok," she finally said and hopped off the chair, "But only because I believe you."

She smiled at him as she headed to the door and waved, "See you later, geezer!"

"I'm not that old!"

She walked towards the stone building, where Makino and her would now simply sometimes sit there. With pure muscle memory, she soon found herself looking at the setting sun. Maybe she was just stressing over nothing. These bandits were nothing, and even in the original One Piece timeline they were nothing. From what she remembers, Garp will eventually teach them their place.

But when would that be?

She also distinctly remembers a lack of Julias in the series. Was it because of the bandits? A scowl she would not openly show to others appeared. She had to be more careful. If the encounter with the bandit from the other day said anything, it shouted how she definitely was not strong enough to fend off an adult. Not yet. So she had to trust the mayor and his lacking tactics.

With a soft sigh, she put her hands to her forehead and could feel the plastor Julia put on her. Also, she had been running on pure adrenaline when she fought against that bandit. Sure, the forest helped her in dodging and swiping her knife, but she never fought against a human before. Her hand trembled. She cut a person. She did not even care if the bandit died, she wanted to simply get a message across.

She could feel herself shaking, as if she was shivering despite the warm beams of the falling sun.

Peeking through her fingers, she looked at the warm colors of the setting sun.

Her adult mind can keep up with what is happening to her, but her child body can not keep it up. The feeling of flight or fight activated, and she chose to fight. She did not regret it. Nor did she regret wounding the man. But despite that, her body seemed to be petrified. She was ok, she was sure. So why are her hands trembling this much?

She gulped. Breathe in deeply… and exhale.

So she admits, what she did was abnormal. But to One Piece standards, it seemed pretty normal. Nonetheless though. How could she get tunnel vision after getting angry over a person? It never happened before. And how come that anger converted itself so well to a sort of fighting energy? Is this because she was essentially living in an anime? Or was it because of her upbringing?

She shook her head immediately and put her hands to her eyes as she bowed her whole body forwards.

Fuck she did not want to be reminded of her upbringing- of those memories-

Whatever the reason may be, it happened. No need to dwell more into that.

**Scar. Hand. Cell.**

She squeezes her eyes shut. No need to dwell more into that.

**Rotten hand. Throw away. Nephew, uncle.**

She clenched her hands tight, feeling like she could rip her face apart.

**"Be a good girl Chiko-chan."**

"Chiko-chan?"

She flinched harshly and looked to the side to quickly hide her face.

Makino looked up, as she stood on the ground, below from where Chiko was sitting on the stone house. "Y-yeah?" Chiko shakily replied. The green haired girl tilted her head in confusion, why was Chiko looking away and why did she sound like that? "I need to help Julia-san with some cleaning. Is that alright?"

Chiko sat shivering all over, thinking about what Makino just asked her. It took a few seconds to fully register it, before she fully dulled out the previous thoughts with Makino's wonderful question. Chiko just had to snort. Was the girl really asking Chiko permission to help their tsundere grandma figure?

"Of course it is shorty. I'll catch you later."

"Hey! I'm not short! But ok, see you later!"

The girl ran off, back to the bar as Chiko had a gentle smile.

So, she realized, she can get strong. Strong like the main character of the series she used to watch. If she can get that strong, she will be.

XXX

The places that she used to dodge in the forest before, she ran into now.

Wielding her knife, she eyed the big snake in front of her, and it eyed her back. Her heart was beating rapidly against her chest and she's almost sure that the snake could hear it. She stood on a big tree and had been resting there, until this snake slithered towards her.

She expertly played with her knife and tilted her head with a small smile, "Lovely skin you have." The snake lunged, as if it understood what she said. She jumped up and landed on its slippery body. The snake went to bite her again but she jumped back. The snake looked up and saw no one.

It slipped its tongue out once and suddenly it stopped.

Chiko pulled out her switch knife from the snake's head and the snake's dead body fell from the tree and fell to the ground, quite a few meters from the top. As she eyed the fallen snake and then her blood covered knife, she was reminded of a certain man.

She cut a piece of the snake skin, and since it was still pretty early, she set off the Goa Kingdom. It was a faster ride than when she was with Julia and Makino, even if they did have a carriage back then. She had a bit of trouble finding the store she bought her fine switch knife, but eventually did and came in with no finesse.

"Hey Raf-san!"

"Who the hell- how dare you enter my store like that!"

Chiko looked around and saw no customers, so she grinned and walked up to the man that stood behind the counter, his face becoming a bit red with anger. So she merely grinned. "Good morning-"

"Afternoon," he corrected despite how angry he looked.

Chiko hummed. Already afternoon?

"You remember me?" she asked, semi curious and semi for business. He crossed his arms and huffed, "It is most unfortunate, but yes." She grinned at him, "Wonderful! And do you still have no snakeskin provider?"

"You smile at my misfortune-"

Deciding that that was a positive, she dropped the chunk of snake skin she gathered this morning. From the snake that she completely wrecked. Rafael, the salesman of the weapon's store Chiko bought her switch knife from, eyed the poorly cut but definitely snakeskin piece. "Where did you get this?"

Right to business, as she likes it.

"Got it myself, killed the beastie all by me."

The man eyes the skin more closely, humming, before looking up at Chiko again.

"It is crudely cut," he mentions as if it offended him but Chiko shrugged. She was no professional cutter, so it was to be expected. "However, I am in need of a snakeskin provider, not a snakeskin handler," he mumbled. Chiko had to process his words for a few more seconds until she grinned and slammed her hands to the table, he grimaced at that, and laughed a bit, "So I take it I'm in?"

Rafael sighed, "Yes."

And ever since that day, when she would come across a snake, she would dive for it and try her hardest to kill it. And she got bit more often than she'd like to admit. She was glad that more snakes on the island was not venomous, thankfully or else she'd be dead.

However one day she did get bit by a venomous snake and she was bedridden for a couple of days. Thankfully the venom was basically a bad case of the cold. Through each snake she gave to Rafael, she got some bellies. It depended on the quality of the snake though and how much there was.

Nonetheless, sometimes she came back holding 50 thousand bellies.

Things were looking up.

And today, she grinned, things were really looking up. Two months had passed since the bandits attacked Julia and a bit less than a month passed since she got hired by Rafael to give him snake skin, and now she finally achieved her goal.

Finding where the bandits live.

Night had fallen and she knew she would need to apologize to Makino and Julia for coming home late, but this was more important. She could hear their boisterous laughter and Dandan's one too. She knew she hit the jackpot. She climbed off the tree she was sitting on previously and crept her way to the bandit's house. She tiptoed around the house and eventually saw an open window.

She crept towards it and listened.

"Wow Dandan, did you- you got fatter!"

"Shut the hell up bastard!"

Aright, looks like there may not be a lot of important things that were discussed that day.

XXX

Now that she finally found their hideout, she changed her schedule. She would stay with Makino and Julia at the bar until lunch, and then she would head off to the forest and stay somewhere near Dandan's hideout, and would eavesdrop on them until most would go to bed, then she would head back.

She realized how much that improved her instincts, stealth and observation skills, after she played hide and seek with the mayor and Makino.

Another two months had passed when finally, something interesting came up.

"So, in two weeks we take over Foosha! How about it boys?!"

A loud cheer ran out and Chiko scowled.

"What a good idea boss!"

"That's our boss!"

"But why?"

Dandan seemed to stop laughing for a second, gulped something down, sighed, and then laughed again. "Cause they're idiots!"

More laughter. It was not discussed some more that day, but nonetheless, Chiko's heartbeat fastened. Time to do something now.

XXX

As the days passed, their plan to invade Foosha seemed to get more elaborate. They talked about the mayor and how the mayor organized some men to fight them off. But against them all, it would be an easy win, they said. And while Chiko didn't want to agree, she did.

Then she was brought up. The kid that almost cut off a bandit's head.

Dandan really did not like her, if the sound of crashing glass against the wall said anything when someone uttered 'brat' near her. Chiko wanted to grin, feeling like she accomplished something grand.

Nonetheless, this was worrying.

She called Garp the morning after she first heard of their full plan. And he said that he'd come when he can. Mayor said he could handle it but Chiko was not naive and when she said they would be bringing more than a dozen people, he had a look that clearly showed how he underestimated them.

Well to be fair, she also underestimated them.

XXX

Chiko gulped unsurely, as her feet were no longer touching the ground.

In all fairness, the day had started off pretty well. 13 days had passed since she called Garp, telling him about Dandan and the mountain bandits. The mayor thought he had it under control, but Chiko knew he was shitting bricks internally.

Chiko knew which day they would be coming and tried to be as prepared as possible.

But then again, how much could a nine year old do?

When they barged in the village, she tricked a few to come by themselves in alleyways and he knocked out a good three of them. But when three bandits saw what she was doing, she was kinda-probably-maybe- ok no, she was screwed.

One man? Do-able with the element of surprise.

Two men? Very hard to knock 'em both out, but should be fine if fast enough?

Three men is just not gonna go well. And that is exactly what happened.

Chiko managed to cut one of them, a gash to their upper thigh, until she was picked up and slapped so hard she fell to the ground with a loud thud. "You- the damn brat chief was talking about!" one of them grunted and picked up the trembling kid. "Damn, did you have to slap her? Look at her, she's shaking like a leaf-"

Chiko bit the arm that picked her up, causing her to be dropped to the child. She was about to sprint for it, but she was immediately kicked before she could do anything else. With the air knocked out of her lungs and the burning sensation to her cheek and the pain blooming to her stomach, she stayed quivering on the ground.

"-Yeah, ok- let's get her to chief."

Then she felt her wrists being grabbed and someone pulled her up. "C'mon kid, I ain't picking you up."

Chiko mumbled something under her breath, making both bandits glance at each other,before looking down at the kid. "What did you say?" One of them said, as the other inspected the pile of his comrades Chiko knocked out.

"Damn boomer, your hearing's as bad as your brain? I said..." she looked up. Even if her whole body was trembling, her eyes were not, "You basic bitches are a damn bore."

Half of the vocabulary flew over their heads, but they understood one thing very clearly. The brat that was literally at their mercy, was insulting them. They both got tick marks and unsheathed their swords again.

Until- "Group up!" -their leader's voice.

The bandits 'tsk'ed, sheathed their sword and dragged Chiko to where they heard their leader. Chiko, meanwhile, was not scared. Somehow she could not help trembling, but there was an eerie calmness within her. She thought the trembling calm more from the adrenaline, the fact that she has been fighting people physically stronger than her, and also her child body not keeping up with her mentality.

Her body may be trembling, but her eyes held an intense curiosity.

What exactly was Dandan going to do to her? Slap her? Lame, that already happened- yes she could still feel the stinging. Kill her? Double lame. And Chiko knew Dandan was not going to torture her or something like that, so Chiko was mighty curious. But she was prepared to be disappointed nonetheless.

Soon Chiko was dragged to the docks, where the mayor also was and a few other civilians and bandits. And Dandan of course. Chiko could not help but smile at how Dandan looked at her with much anger. Dandan's gaze snapped upwards to the two bandits that were with Chiko. "I'm missing five bandits, where are they?" she snapped, not cutting corners.

Five? That's interesting, she remembered taking out four.

"Ch-"

Chiko looked to the corner of her eyes and saw Julia was among the civilians. Chiko calmly gazed at the older woman, as if nothing important was happening, before looking back at Dandan curiously. The bandits were explaining how they found a few knocked out, probably because of the brat they said, and Dandan had been a bit silent ever since.

"Are you telling me..."

Dandan looked like she was going to transform into a giant, going from how animalistic she appeared right now. Chiko could only stare in amazement as her smile widened.

"That brat knocked out most of my men?!"

The bandits could only sputter, "W-well, uh-uh, we-uh think so-"

The world seemed to roll over a couple of times for Chiko as she felt a strong pulling sensation to- ah, Dandan is holding her collar.

Chiko gulped unsurely, as her feet were no longer touching the ground. Her smile dropped a bit, because she was not feeling that suicidal. "Long time no see, chief," Chiko let out, her neck very much hurting by how she was being suspended by her collar at the moment.

"You little shit," well that's not very nice, "how did you know we'd be coming?"

Who spilled the tea? Chiko gazed at the civilians and honestly could not pinpoint anyone, so she looked back at Dandan and shrugged. "Found your base. Apparently you're gaining weight. I heard drinking hot water helps." Chiko suppressed the flinch that wanted to act out. Damn she should watch her mouth. But she so does not regret it. Looking at the various expressions Dandan is pulling is almost too satisfying.

"Please take me instead!" the mayor shouts just as Dandan looks like she'd snap. Dandan does not take her eyes off Chiko though. "Fuck no."

Dandan pulled back her arm that was not holding Chiko and clutched the free hand into a tight fist. Ah, so Dandan's gonna punch, then? Chiko couldn't suppress the disappointed pout that appeared. Man she was really hoping for something better, but a punch?

Dandan almost dropped the punch. What kid would not look at least a bit scared at this situation? The moment Dandan laid her eyes on the brat, the brat dared to smile. Smile. As if nothing was happening. Then she would continue talking and talking- as if she did not even know the gravity of the situation. Sure kids are dense, but this dense- No.

Dandan had observed the brat for long enough. This kid was not dense. In fact, probably the kid is the opposite of dense. So why was she acting this way?! Dandan literally has no other option but to hurt the kid. So why the hell does the kid look disappointed, before she's about to get punched. It almost halts Dandan's actions. Keyword: almost.

Chiko can feel air swoop in front of her face and is immensely surprised to not feel pain.

She is even more surprised to see a familiar hand, right in front of her face.

"Huh? These are the mountain bandits? Don't look like much..."

Chiko's collar gets ungripped and she lands to her feet. She goes behind the tall man that wore a marine uniform, a man that is best friends with a certain captain that wore a straw hat. She beams and almost laughs to Dandan's face.

"You were almost late, old man!"

Garp punched her head, "I'm not an old man- oh wait I am..."

She gets punched again, "I'm not late!"

XXX

Julia put a bandaid on Chiko's cheek as Chiko drank juice out of a straw, sitting on a bench swinging her feet back and forth. She could clearly see Garp scolding the mountain bandits from her view, and while she would love seeing Dandan get humiliated, that stuff was too much for her secondhand embarrassment so she consoled Makino instead.

"Why- why- why did you do thaaat?" Makino cried heavily by Chiko lap, making Chiko smile and pat her head with her free hand. "What else would I do?" Chiko returned, only to wince when Julia rubbed disinfectant at a bleeding cut. "Stay indoors and let the adults take care of it," Julia glared at Chiko but the kid shrugged.

"Naw."

Julia pressed the cut harder than needed, making Chiko flinch even more and Makino cry even more. Chiko sighed and rubbed tears away from Makino's face, "listen, listen Makino," Chiko started quietly and Makino sniffled and looked up at Chiko with teary eyes. Chiko grinned, "I knew Dandan's personality pretty well, so I knew what she was going to do. And I was not scared. Besides, everything turned out fine."

"You got beaten up, Chiko," Julia glared. Chiko gazed over to Julia as she sipped on her juice.

"And that was very careless of you."

Chiko silently set the drink to her lap and let her eyes move to Garp, who was having a one on one talk with Dandan now, and then gazed back to Makino, who was no longer crying, but still seemed extremely worried. So she may have created unnecessary panic. But she wasn't scared. Not one bit.

She looked down at her hands. Was it normal for her to not be scared? Is it because of her past life? Or is it maybe because of her current life's childho-

_**STOP.**_

...Stop…?

Ah...

Ah, ok.

"I'm sorry," Chiko admitted softly. She should have been more careful about it, rather than purely listening to her curiosity, instincts and guts. She knew better than that… perhaps it's her child's body's natural curiosity? She shook her head. She should stop analyzing herself before those thoughts come in.

"I'll be more careful in the future, I promise."

Julia's gaze softened at the girl as Makino now hugged Chiko tightly, babbling about worries and sunsets.

XXX

Garp laughed whole heartedly, "you're a dumb kid!"

Chiko could only both smile and feel very attacked at the same time, "thanks!"

"Shut up, now listen, that was pretty dumb."

Chiko internalized the sigh and nodded. Night had fallen and it looked like Garp did not throw the bandits in prison, but they were nowhere to be seen anymore. Makino was exhausted and went to sleep as soon as they went back to the bar and Julia went back to her duties at the bar. Garp and Julia had already spoken to each in low voices, before Garp went up to Chiko at the counter, as the girl was finishing her dinner.

"If you want to pull that off, you need to be strong. Much stronger."

As if that was not obvious.

"So I made a deal with the bandits." Chiko perked up and looked at Garp curiously. He, on the other hand, did not seem interested at all and had his face propped up by his hand. "I won't send them to prison for a lifetime if they don't bother anyone anymore." Chiko squinted her eyes… she's… pretty sure it was not completely like that in this original story. But she's also pretty sure Garp won't tell her more about his and Dandan's deal.

"Ok…?"

"Nothing."

Chiko could only tilt her head in confusion. She could have sworn that he was going to continue talking.

XXX

Chiko gulped and held her switch knife tightly.

So that's what was running in his mind.

She could hear too many noises around her, and it was dark and wet. The sun was barely hitting where she stood, the trees covering much of the everywhere above her. Trinkles of water passed her feet and she grew paler by the second,

He dropped her in a deep ravine the next day, somewhat near to the mountain bandit's base.

She almost got killed by the mountain bandits, so he decided to throw her in a wild ravine?!

What the hell?!

* * *

**Lmao it's been some time guys.**

**So I think I said last time that this chapter's gon be the last of her childhood. Well, actually fake news. Next chapter's gonna be the end of her childhood, if all goes according to plan. **

**Also, next chapter, there's gonna be a pretty nice character that's gonna shooww uppp~~**

**nice nice**

**Yall stay safe, wash your hands**

**See ya**


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